The Power of Boredom: 10 reasons why Feeling Bored Can Make You a Better Person

In this day and age when was the last time you felt bored.Like honestly,I think the last time I felt bored was when there was a power shutdown and all my devices drained out.

During my childhood I constantly had the feel of being bored,but ever since the invention of mobile phones and social media have we ever felt bored? In places where we are supposed to feel bored like during our metro commute or while waiting for someone,we immediately reach out to our stimulating devices.Why do we go back to scrolling our phone when we need to read a non fiction book.Because our phones are more stimulating than the book.

Introduction

Have you noticed a few years back long form content was being watched widely,but ever since the short form content came into play in the form of reels and shorts our attention span grew significantly lesser.

I have friends who would watch series and youtube videos by increasing the playback speed,because they don’t even have the mental attention span to savour and watch something.

Boredom is the feeling we experience when we move towards a lesser stimulating environment.While we always have a device next to us,there has been no need for us to experience this less stimulating environment.So eventually these devices start to affect our productivity.We use them during times when instead we need to get our work done,since our work has now become a lesser stimulating activity.

But a recent study says boredom can increase our productivity,focus and creativity.In this study, participants were asked to do a boring task: sorting beans by color — one by one. Afterward, they were given an idea-generation exercise. Surprisingly, these “bored” participants came up with more and better ideas than another group who had done a fun craft activity instead.

Why are the bored group’s ideas more unique and creative? Because boredom may have forced their brains to wander, tapping into deeper imagination and problem-solving.

So,what are the actual benefits of being bored and in this age how can we realistically induce boredom in our daily life.

Boredom helps us to turn inwards – Self reflection

When we are taken off our stimulating activities,we are bored.While having nothing to do or doing something on autopilot pushes us to look inwards.It gives our mind some time to wander into the past and future scenarios of life and rethink our choices.It helps to us better analyze our future decisions.Boredom provides us time to figure out what we really want and helps us to do some soul searching.Self reflection from time to time is necessary for us to live a happier and more fulfilling life.

Boredom increases focus and productivity 

Have you noticed that sometimes we won’t be able to get our work done,because we wander off scrolling with our phone.This happens because we have a better stimulating activity to do  i.e. scrolling on our phone than to get actual work done.We have to push ourselves to get our work done.

So when we are bored with no stimulation our work becomes more stimulating when compared.This boredom now helps us to better focus and be productive on the things that really matter.

You can read more about staying focused and increasing productivity here in my latest blog post.

Boredom gives us a mental reset

Doesn’t our brain need a break for all the over stimulating activities that we do? Boredom helps to hit pause while we are constantly stimulated.This prevents us for being burnt out from all the juggling tasks that we do from switching tasks,office work,home chores and also scrolling.Boredom helps us to slow down and take things one at a time and be better at what we do.

Boredom helps you to cultivate new hobbies 

When we are bored,we naturally try to find things to do that we won’t naturally do when we are stimulated.A simple watercolour painting or origami would give us more peace and joy when we have new stimulation.When we are bored we naturally tend to find something creative to do and who knows you can unlock your life’s purpose through this.

Boredom sparks creativity 

Why do the best ideas strike us when we are in the shower ? It’s because being bored and doing something that doesn’t require our full attention helps our mind to wander and daydream.It helps us to tune into our imagination.Since we don’t have any stimulation when we are bored our mind creates these stimulation through imagination thus sparking our creativity.And by also being bored we actually start taking action on these creative ideas.

Boredom helps us to enjoy our own company 

This helps us to become our own friend.When we are bored we start to analyse our thoughts and enjoy being in that state.Boredom can feel pressured at first but with practice it will help us to sit with our own thoughts and we become enjoying our own selves 

Boredom helps to us become more mindful 

Boredom makes us to tune into simpler things and become more mindful.We start to truly savor the food we eat when we are not watching TV.We tend to have deep meaningful conversations with others when our phone is not on the table.We also start to enjoy the little things like,steam coming up from our coffee,a beautiful sunrise or our plant sprouting a new leaf.Boredom helps us to notice all these smaller details that helps us to be more grateful for such moments.We become more present and happy in our daily life.

Boredom makes us more patient and have self control 

When we know we cannot reach our to our phones when the notification sound pops up,we practice self control and learn to be patient.We are not immediately rushed to get on our devices when we are patient.Boredom helps us to make terms with being discomfort anf frustration.We get more resilient in all parts of our life and helps us to take control.

List of boring activities 

• Sweeping or mopping the floor
  
• Ironing clothes
  
• Sorting beans or buttons by color

• Copying text from a book by hand
  
• Counting ceiling tiles or cracks in the wall

• Watching clouds drift
  
• Staring out a window
  
• Listening to a ticking clock
  
• Watching paint dry

Thus boredom helps us to become a better person by helping us look into our true selves and enjoy doing the things that matters the most to us.Let me know in the comments below what do you do when you are feeling bored?