The Importance of Being Bored

// Problem Not knowing how to handle boredom correctly is the reason why you aren't living your best life. We have all went through this kind of subconscious programming of avoiding boredom by: scrolling on your phone, going out with friends or doing literally anything. All of us are in this never ending loop of being overstimulated -> reacting to boredom with more overstimulating activities.

// Emphasis - Make Problem Feel Huge

// Solution

Idea: Full boredom is the actual place of disregarding all the informational structures in your brain, not stressing yourself & and having the higher chance of coming up with something new.

Uh, in today's essay and reflection, I wanna talk about the importance of being bored. What I've noticed is that in the daily cycle of a modern person, you might live for months or years without actually looking into boredom as the source of creativity, as the source of improvement, and as the source of improving your life. And we are always conditioned to think of boredom as something to avoid — with different activities like scrolling on mobile phones, going out with friends, etc.

Now that I'm thinking from personal experience, when you are bored, there is this turbulent period initially when you have to choose what you're gonna do — whether to get some cheap dopamine, whether to see friends, whether to do something else, or you decide to look at your boredom in the eyes and try to make something useful and good out of it. I've noticed that the best ideas in my mind come when I'm bored, and when I choose to spend and target my boredom in terms of reading something, understanding something, gaining some kind of new experience and thoughts and ideas.

But what is it about boredom that most humans do not like? What I've noticed is that boredom is usually associated with loneliness — well, at least for me. And we, as social creatures, do not want to feel alone. We want to be part of the group. We wanna be approved, we wanna be validated socially. For those people who especially seek social validation — maybe because they don't have enough self-confidence — and seek external and extrinsic rewards for feeling good, boredom is something to be afraid of, 'cause sitting home alone, being bored, not knowing what to do, starts emotions that make you feel odd, make you feel not part of some kind of group, especially if your peers are together, if your peers are going out.

And especially in Georgian culture, I've noticed that each and every person by default fills their boredom with some kind of social activities — and it is not conscious social activity, it is subconscious social activity, because we have been conditioned and taught from childhood that this is what you gotta do when you feel bored.

But what if I told you that starting from today, when you feel bored, when you feel alone, it is the exact time for you not to subconsciously and reactively go out with people and try to feel better and validated — but what if that is exactly the moment and time you need to look into yourself, reflect on your thoughts and emotions? And not only thoughts and emotions — maybe that is exactly the time to learn a new skill, read one or two pages of a new book, understand some new idea, and challenge your existing ones. All of these things happening inside yourself.

Finding the peace and the cure to boredom inside yourself is one of the biggest virtues and processes that one can think of and create within itself. Let's try to be more thoughtful about how we cure boredom, how we actually treat boredom, and what we can get out of it. Thank you.