CELEBRATING BOREDOM | stedtnitz. design your life
Boredom is often seen as something negative that should be avoided. This is a shame, because boredom can actually create a lot of positive side-effects. It promotes relaxation and rejuvenation and can even lead to enhanced levels of joy and creativity. This is also the case for children.
In the VUCA world that we live in (see post) everything moves very quickly. We’re expected to devote every free moment towards being productive. While we’re waiting at the busstop, we have just enough time to respond to an e-mail; while we’re sitting in the bus we hop on a phone call; in the checkout line at the grocery store we glance at our online newsfeed – just to make sure that we’re up to speed with what’s going on in the world. Our days and moments are always filled with something, and we spend a lot of our time in the digital space. We’re even expected to fill up all of our free time – so that we experience maximum fulfillment. This doesn’t leave much time for boredom. Boredom is looked down upon. It implies suboptimal time-planning. But boredom actually has some powerful benefits.
According to British psychologist Dr. Sandi Mann, boredom, or time spent doing “nothing”, can promote relaxation, inspiration and creativity. Some time without constant stimulation, like taking a break from your smartphone, can enhance your quality of life. Just because we’re not doing anything, doesn’t mean that our brains are inactive. This is valuable time that our brain uses to sort through and organize its memory bank. Brain expert Theo Compernolle emphasizes that this is essential clean-up time for our brains. So next time you’re sitting in the train or on a plane, try gazing out the window for a little while and see how you feel after.
All of this also applies to children. According to Sandi Mann, it is absolutely essential that children don’t receive constant entertainment. They need to learn that life isn’t made up of constant action. If their environment is constantly changing and they experience constant distraction, children become dependent on novelty and intolerant towards phases when seemingly nothing is happening.
Do you have the courage to fill up some of your time with the unspectacular and to celebrate boredom? Next time you have a moment, take some time to sit on that park bench, enjoy the fresh air, and watch the clouds float by. And take your kids with you while you’re at it.
Dig deeper:
Theo Compernolle (2017), How to unchain your brain in a hyperconnected multitasking world von
Sandi Mann (2016). The Upside of Downtime: why Boredom is good