Research suggests being a little bored is good. Those dull periods provide us time to reflect and help solve problems
Bored. Yes, it’s such a boring word. Often when you have a meeting and turns out the previous meeting is still going on so you have to wait and wait you get bored. There you are, without anything to keep you occupied. Now you stare into the empty space in front of you and think of so many things that are not related and follow those chains of thoughts, one after another, to the point of putting you to sleep. I am sure you have experienced something like this and I am also sure that quite a few times you have thought, ‘Not good, not good at all!’ You are not alone. The common perception is that being bored is not good and should be avoided.
Boredom in the absence of gadgets seems like a 21st century disaster, but would you believe, it’s been around for centuries? Actually, since historical times, and it’s been seen negatively. Graffiti from the time of Pompey represents boredom. Roman philosophy described it as a kind of nausea, while the Christian tradition has documented it as a “noonday demon.” It appears that virtually everyone from Socrates to the kid on the street gets bored. All of them represent boredom as something negative and we take them as bad. Then, again, are we judging it right? Is being bored bad or are we missing something here? Should we constantly stay busy? Is it so bad to let our minds wander, stare and do nothing?
As it turns out, we have been thinking about boredom wrong all along. Surprised? Don’t be. Research suggests being bored a little is actually good for us. If you give it a thought, you will acknowledge that these dull periods have provided you with time to reflect, helped solve problems and even made you a bit happier. I can imagine a few people smiling.
Reflect back and you will find being bored often forced you to give your mind the missing stimulation, thus creating fantasies and imaginations. Being bored helps with daydreaming, allowing new, innovative connections that provide an option to turn ‘bored to tears’ into ‘bored to genius’.
Being bored also allows us to slow down a bit and escape the 24/7 connectivity: it’s all too easy to turn to our mobile phones or tablets for stimulation and entertainment. This keeps our minds constantly active, alert and ready for email, status updates, Instagram posts and so on. There is no time for your brain to take a break, just be yourself, whereas being bored gives us a rest from the constant rat race of activities. Being bored also provides us the opportunity to enter a state of mindfulness, to appreciate our current time and space and our existence and reflect, thus, for a change, putting a momentary stop to the hectic daily routine.
Just like adults, children are also prone to boredom and parents feel guilty when their children complain of being bored. Under such circumstances it’s up to the parents to be constructive and take boredom as an opportunity and not as a drawback. Now is the time for parents to be innovative and not rush with ready-made solutions. I am sure parents have noticed that their children become bored when they do not have enough challenges: either in their study or puzzles or crafts or anything else. So it is important to maintain a level of challenge when doing something. Everything needs to be simple yet challenging enough to keep your child interested in the activity.
The other thing to keep in mind is that there are benefits from potential boredom and for that children need inner resources as well as material ones. Parents need to put an effort to develop qualities like curiosity, perseverance, playfulness, interest and confidence.
Allow them to explore, create and develop powers of inventiveness, observation and concentration in their children as they grow. This is where schools also put an effort. So it is a joint effort of parents and school to keep children from being discouraged if something doesn’t work the first time, and try again. By helping children develop such capacities, parents offer their children something of lifelong value.
I can understand a parents’ wish to raise their child as self-reliant individuals: capable of taking initiatives and thinking for themselves. While you are at it, please don’t forget that filling a child’s time teaches them to depend on external stimulus, whether it is material possessions or some kind of entertainment. Instead provide nurturing conditions, trusting children’s natural inclination, and engage their minds to make your child independent, competent and full of ideas.
I know you are thinking, ‘What if they are labeled lazy?’ This indeed is the case with adults as well. Many of us feel the pressure to always be engaged with something for fear of appearing lazy. As a result we become obsessed and are constantly seeking new experiences. We all know that occasional boredom is inevitable. Decreasing our reliance on technology and embracing small bouts of boredom will help us break this constant cycle of connectivity and to enjoy the simple pleasures in life.
Finally, the point is to aim for a healthy dose of boredom. A good bout of boredom needs to be viewed as an opportunity to unplug, daydream and let your creative juices flow. After all, Newton was just sitting under an apple tree bored when he discovered gravity. Then again, being bored has become something foreign to us thanks to modern-day technology. With smartphones, tablets, social media and computer games, our society is ever busy doing nothing in particular. Favoring the virtual world means we stop noticing the real world that surrounds us. Next time you feel like yelling, “I’m bored!” you just turn off technology and give boredom a chance. Who knows what you might result from it? Now that’s something to think about, right?
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The author is an educationist and author of several children’s books
