Why you should get bored more often
I don’t mean to pry but what do you do when you are free from work?
A lot of us have entertainment at our service. Just a click away. With a host of options to choose from, I never felt the need to even think where I wanted to kill some time.
A movie on Netflix, binge watching a show or mindlessly browsing YouTube. Minutes pass like seconds and before you know it, it’s bedtime.
Some immersive entertainment, I must say.
I never gave a second thought to spending my time in this way for a very long time. It was almost reflex action, some sort of autopilot mode where I no longer controlled where I spent my time.
Until recently.
Let me take you a little earlier into the story, before I had this epiphany of sorts. A time where I was miserable, rueful and in agony.
A time when I didn’t write or didn’t write well.
Now, I never considered myself a great writer but I was good (at least that’s what I tell myself at night) and I wanted to be better.
But I couldn’t.
No matter what I tried to write, I was failing. I wrote for hours only to be disappointed with the results. I would look through my previous works and wonder how I was able to write so better in the past but not now.
As I grew worse, I started giving in to distractions. More movies, more shows and a lot less writing. I started dreading writing. Was I losing it? The more I got distanced from writing, the more time I spent with my mobile screen.
And then midnight struck.
My data pack validity was over.
The silence after was deafening. I was alone, it was dark and the silence prevailed. I was used to dozing off while watching something, now I couldn’t sleep.
After about an hour of panic, my nerves relaxed a little. I felt like a rehabilitating addict feeling clean after a very long time. As my mind drove at a normal pace, I started feeling bored.
It was relaxing alright. But it was boring.
And that’s when I saw it.
A book
The Essentials of Rumi by Coleman Barks ( A juicy yet inaccurate translation, something I might talk about some other time )
A book I had bought months ago but did not read. I picked it up and started reading. I was reading a book after a very long time and felt good. I used to read blogs, articles and the like but there’s something about books that couldn’t be replaced.
And it was poetry from a bygone age. I was bound to be elated and elated I was, ecstatic even.
That’s when inspiration struck.
I wrote some great pieces of poetry that night and that helped me sleep. It made me feel a lot better about myself and more confident. It was among the best poems I have ever written.
You see that’s the thing about inspiration. It strikes those who are actively pursuing it not those who wait for it. Most of us procrastinate making excuses that we are not inspired enough.
“Inspiration: It strikes those who are actively pursuing it not those who wait for it. Most of us procrastinate making excuses that we are not inspired enough.”
Well, that’s because we aren’t working enough. We are given a mind that can create extraordinary things but like everything else that produces stuff, it needs input.
And reading is that input. It doesn’t matter how much you read or for how long until you read consistently.
Get into the habit of boredom
Make a habit to get bored for a decent amount of time daily. This will be your warm up time. Choose the time that’s convenient (the time you are most likely to waste with unimportant information).
If you are so busy not to have time, sleep a little less. Start with a few minutes each day, increasing the time slowly. Make sure you have no entertainment or any sort of distraction during this time.
When you are bored, observe.
Look outside. Look around yourself. You might be in your office, classroom, home or even your bedroom alone. Look around and see. Be present and breathe or whatever.
Look for things, people, light or movements. If you are an open place with greenery good. If not, make do with what you got.
Then, look inside. Ask yourself what’s bothering you, exciting you, seducing you or pushing you. Why are you nervous today, at this moment? or happy? or sad? Why do you feel like running away or eating pani puri?
Ask better, deeper questions. Contemplate.
Then read.
Carry a book all the time. Doesn’t matter if it’s fiction, non fiction, poetry or this blog post. Does’t matter if it’s a physical book or an ebook (I prefer physical books, BTW). Just read.
Contemplate on what you read. Remember the exercises we used to back in school? What the writer means by this? What the poet wants to say? It is more relevant today. Ask those questions and think.
“It’s funny how we humans don’t use our most prized possession anymore: thinking”
Write it down
Maybe you don’t want to be a writer but it doesn’t matter. Studies show how therapeutic writing can be. Leverage that. Don’t worry about language or grammar. You don’t have to show it to anyone (although it would be awesome if you start a blog or something).
Write it down and track your progress. Watch how much you have improved and where you lack. What are the emotions you go through frequently and if it’s negative. How can you better yourself?
Sounds like lot of work, isn’t it? But it sounds hopeful and helpful too.
And what’s there to lose? Maybe an episode of your favorite TV show or a game or two of PUBG, but in the long run, it will help you carve yourself into a better and more fruitful person.
Think about this when you are bored.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
