I routinely ask my patients what’s happening since we last met and if there is anything exciting or ominous in the immediate future. Thanks to covid19, the usual response I receive now is ‘nothing’ and ‘nothing’. This is often said with a grin and the add-on ‘I’m boring!”. I usually reply I like boring; it’s a sign no bad matters are happening.
Most emotions point us to pay attention to something, but boredom tells us what we are doing isn’t worth our while. With the instant availability of cellphone shenanigans, boredom is now rarer than at any other time in history – and more awful when experienced. We would rather eat rats at Tewkesbury than experience boredom. I recently heard about a study on boredom involving college kids asked to do nothing but sit and think in a room that had in it a device that would give a small but unpleasant electric shock if touched. It turns out a sizeable amount of participants preferred shocking themselves – sometimes often – to that of being bored with their thoughts.
Our monkey brains are wired to learn and grow and do things that have meaning and when this isn’t happening, we become sorely vexed. An element of why folks to do drugs, drink, smoke, eat junk food, etc. is they feel bored and cannot think of anything else to do. Most job dissatisfaction is based on boredom and the underlying sense what they do has no meaning.
Urs Truly is seldom if ever bored, simply because I always have something that interests me. I feel fortunate this way. There is nearly always something to do and what I have to do is worthwhile. Like Mary Poppins’ spoonful of sugar, I make meaning out of the mundane. However, the dark side of this is I don’t allow myself times to be bored. This would be a good thing I reckon. Many authors and inventors relate their ideas came to them during quiet times of boredom when they were not distracted by things.
Covid has many folks feeling bored for the first time in a long while. Rather than try to escape from it, let’s try to learn something from it. The quote “Be still, and know that I am God” holds truth that when things are quiet we are open to inspiration and insight.
18 comments
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February 25, 2021 at 12:06 PM
Lori
I can not remember ever being bored.
February 25, 2021 at 12:14 PM
Urspo
This may be a mixed blessing; try it sometime if you are able.
February 25, 2021 at 12:57 PM
anne marie in philly
some days I just sits on my fat ass and I knit or read and listen to music. other days, like today, were made for house chores. git ‘er done!
February 25, 2021 at 1:03 PM
Urspo
nothing of that sounds at all boring but contentment.
February 25, 2021 at 3:13 PM
Old Lurker
I agree about cellphones and other technology being endorphin machines. I would likely be one of those self-administering painful shocks; after all, I read blogs for entertainment.
In my mind procrastination, boredom, and anxiety are all closely tied. I often feel resistance to the things I ought to be doing, which seems like boredom but is really fear of failure. I wish I had your Protestant work ethic.
February 26, 2021 at 6:54 AM
Urspo
I ask patients to examine ‘failure” how bad would it be really (the failure and the feelings of such) to fail an attempt at something.
February 25, 2021 at 3:30 PM
David Godfrey
I can remember as a child and a teenager, complaining that I was bored and there WAS NOTHING TO DO. I think I have changed. There is so much to do, and I am reaching the age where I realize, I won’t get to all of it. There are a thousand books I should read, there is enough content uploaded to YouTube today, to keep you busy for something like 80 years, I like the electronic toys, but I also appreciate the moments of silence and solitude. There are articles and rants I should write. Blogging, commit to post once a day, and there goes 3 or 4 hours a week. Checking in with my online friends – bloggers each day – fills an hour.
February 26, 2021 at 6:55 AM
Urspo
My brothers tell me their childrens’ laments of ‘nothing to do’ drivers them to distraction.
February 25, 2021 at 3:30 PM
jefferyrn
I used to think I ate out of boredom. Boredom is the trigger sometimes but the thoughts are what lead to the action. See I am learning.
February 26, 2021 at 6:56 AM
Urspo
good for you.
When I start heading to the fridge I stop to ask myself ‘why” often it ibecause I am bored and this suddenly came to mind.
February 25, 2021 at 3:39 PM
Ron
I have too many interests and too much to do than to be bored. What an awful thing to have so little curiosity that one is bored with life.
February 26, 2021 at 6:56 AM
Urspo
I makes my eyes cross to hear folks clueless ‘what to do” other than work.
It seems a sad life to just exist and not grow/learn
February 25, 2021 at 8:34 PM
Bob Slatten
To paraphrase Elaine Stritch:
I have been bored and I have been boring; bored is better.
February 26, 2021 at 6:57 AM
Urspo
I did not know this one; I liked it.
February 25, 2021 at 8:50 PM
BadNoteB
I agree completely with Ron and consider it a blessing to envision boredom as a post mortem experience. I cannot remember a time where proclivities toward inquisitiveness, awe and wonder have failed to spur the imagination in filling those sparse idle moments in life. This wiring was firmly in place long before Al Gore’s fabulous Internet invention and its multitude of Google anti-boredom features!
February 26, 2021 at 6:57 AM
Urspo
keep learning and keep examining yourself; you will go far and do well and not be bored.
February 26, 2021 at 3:31 AM
Parnassus
I think there are two kinds of boredom, those periods when you really have little to do, and those in which you simply do not feel like doing anything. Like most people, I have an infinity of things to do–the apartment to clean, books to read, food to prepare, letters and posts to write, etc. However, if I am trapped somewhere such as a waiting room, I cannot do most of these things, at least with concentration, so I am apt to feel a bit antsy.
However, sometimes a feeling of boredom descends like a mantle. (This may even be a very light form of depression–you are the expert here.) Then I reject all the waiting activities–the books, cooking dinner, (and especially getting to the cleaning), and just sit there feeling contrary, until the mood passes.
–Jim
p.s. I have a business proposition for you. We’ll create a company to sell those electric shock machines to all the bored people–we’ll make millions!
February 26, 2021 at 6:59 AM
Urspo
I have something similar that often happens Sunday evening: while there is still a lot that could be done, I’ve done a lot, and I am bored. Which means I don’t want to do anything yet not happy to merely sit.