Do you remember being a kid sitting in the backseat of a car asking every 30 seconds,
Are we there yet?
Holding on to that restless feeling of having absolutely nothing to do and desperately wanting something to happen.
We become familiar with boredom pretty early in life and as adults we have become remarkably good at avoiding it.
Standing in line,
Check your phone,
Driving somewhere,
Put on a podcast,
Have 30 seconds to spare,
Scroll through something,
Anything.
We have become so accustomed to feeling every available moment that even a little bit of boredom can feel unbearably uncomfortable.
Is not sufficiently engaging or meaningful,
And it encourages us to look for something else,
Which can explain why boredom creates this sense of urgency to escape whatever it is that we are experiencing.
And today,
Escaping is incredibly easy.
But here is what I find most interesting and what I would love you to consider.
What happens?
When we don't immediately reach for something to fill the space.
Well,
When we are not occupied with something demanding our attention,
We create an opportunity for our minds to wander,
To imagine,
To create,
To recreate,
To connect the dots.
And this kind of mind-wandering engages a collection of interconnected brain regions known as the default mode network.
This region is involved in remembering the past,
Imagining the future,
And reflecting on ourselves.
Research suggests that allowing our minds to wander and to engage the default mode network can actually support creative thinking and problem solving.
I mean,
Think about how often an idea comes to you in the shower,
Or while you are doing something completely mundane rather than when you are actively trying to figure it out.
Or that person from school whose name you forgot comes to you while you're brushing your teeth the next day after you saw them.
It's not that your brain suddenly started working.
It's that you gave it an opportunity to work differently.
Boredom doesn't magically make us more creative,
But when we are constantly directing our attention towards something outside of ourselves,
We leave fewer opportunities for spontaneous thought,
Fewer opportunities for your wonderfully creative,
Brilliant,
Problem-solving brain to make connections you weren't even consciously looking for.
We are so accustomed to asking.
What should we be listening to,
Watching,
Learning,
Consuming,
That even our downtime has become another opportunity to take something in,
To be productive.
And that's okay.
And perhaps we don't need to fill every available gap.
And the benefit isn't necessarily the boredom itself.
It's what we allow to happen when we don't try to immediately escape it.
So what might that look like?
Maybe when you're in line waiting,
You don't scroll.
Maybe when you get into the car,
You don't immediately call a friend or reach for a podcast.
Maybe you simply allow yourself a few minutes without anything demanding your attention.
And you don't have to turn it into a meditation practice either.
In fact,
Don't turn it into a meditation practice for once.
You do not have to give your mind an assignment.
See where it goes.
We spend so much of our day deciding what to put into our minds.
Maybe it's worth leaving a little space to discover what can come out of them.
