This summer has been a grand experiment.
For the first time since I was 13 years old, I took the summer off. I’m still blogging and podcasting, but I had no deadlines, no business trips, no customer responsibilities. I was determined to explore this concept known as “slowing down.”
This hiatus was self-imposed. I’ve had some health issues creep up on me, so I needed to spend more time relaxing, exercising, and healing.
Well, that was the plan, anyway. I’ve been partially successful. My health issues are under control. I’ve read a few books. I took some magnificent hiking and kayaking trips. I painted a few (not very good) watercolor pictures.
And then, the weirdest thing happened. This unfamiliar shudder came over me. I felt bored.
I do not believe I have had this feeling in over a decade. When you’re building a business, there is always something to do! But for a brief shining summer, I put that entrepreneurial frenzy aside, and I felt this paralyzing and scary feeling.
My moment of boredom was followed by a massive wave of guilt. How dare I feel BOREDOM! Am I wasting my life?
I was unprepared for this shock of emotion.
Can you be happy and bored?
Perhaps I am part of the last generation to have truly known chronic boredom. As a kid, there was no internet, let alone TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, or Candy Crush. I was always bored, especially when I was in the back seat of the car.
Does anybody feel bored anymore, ever? I mean, can’t you always pick up Wordle or something? The second we feel the tiniest lull, we dive into our phones like we’re rescuing a drowning puppy.
I began to think a lot about boredom.
How did people in pioneer days keep from going crazy during winters on the prairie?
As you get older and can do less, see less, and hear less, is boredom inevitable? How will I handle that?
Can I be happy and bored at the same time?
I began to wonder … is there any benefit to boredom?
I went down the rabbit hole to figure out if boredom is just a waste of perfectly good oxygen or if it actually has some merit. Turns out, science has been poking at boredom for years — probably because some researchers got bored and thought, “Hey, this is publishable.”
The case for boredom
On the plus side, there’s scientific evidence that boredom is a springboard for creativity. A study found that participants who performed a mind-numbingly dull task (such as copying numbers from a phone book) performed better on creative tasks afterward.
Why? Boredom can give your brain space to wander, connect dots, and hatch weird, wonderful ideas you wouldn’t have had while bingeing The Bear (love).
I came up with this idea that boredom is “psychological fasting.” Clears the decks.
Boredom can be a signal, like your brain’s low-battery warning. Psychologists refer to it as a “self-regulatory emotion,” prompting you to seek meaning or a challenge. That restlessness is your brain saying, “You are built for more than scrolling Instagram.”
And boredom might even make you a better person. Research suggests boredom can push people to volunteer, donate, or help others, because they’re looking for something fulfilling to do.
Maybe the whole world needs to be bored for a day or two.
The case against boredom
Before we start handing out “Bored and Proud” bumper stickers, let’s be honest — boredom can also be the fast lane to bad habits. Boredom eating? Check. Impulse online shopping? Double check. Endless YouTube spirals leading to“How to Survive a Moose Attack”? Don’t ask.
In extreme cases, boredom isn’t just annoying — it’s linked to higher risk-taking, reckless driving, and substance abuse. A study found chronic boredom can correlate with depression and anxiety.
It’s not that boredom causes these issues, but left unchecked, it can create a nasty loop of “nothing feels interesting, so I do nothing, so nothing feels interesting.”
Plus, in our hyper-connected world, boredom tolerance is at an all-time low. This robs us of the chance to sit in stillness long enough for our minds to do anything useful with it.
My boredom breakthrough
I realized my unexpected feeling of guilt wasn’t because boredom is bad. It was because I’d forgotten how to do it. It was literally a shock to my system. My default mode is perpetual motion: write a book, launch a project, book a flight, repeat. Slowing down felt like driving a Ferrari in first gear.
Here’s the amazing part. The moment I dipped into boredom, I launched into a creative frenzy. All these new ideas just came flowing out.
And I wrote a book. Not kidding. Three weeks.
But that’s a story for another day.
Boredom as a luxury?
Like anyone, I feel a range of emotions every day. Except boredom. If you have YouTube in the palm of your hand, there is just no excuse, right?
But shouldn’t we want to feel bored sometimes?
I think boredom has gotten a bad rap. Until this century, boredom was a common fact of life. I’m beginning to think God wanted us to be bored every now and then. It’s a fertile little re-set. You never know what will happen.
I have a new practice of sitting outside with no distractions, no books, no technology. At least an hour per week. Doesn’t that seem weird … boredom is a luxury?
Curing boredom with Wordle is a bit like sating hunger with M&M’s. Give boredom a chance. Take it for a walk. Ask it what it’s trying to tell you. You might just find your next big idea hiding in the quiet.
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Illustration courtesy Mid Journey