Boredom would be defined as the state in which you feel dull, weary and lack the interest. I hate being bored. It’s my least favorite emotion and my least favorite activity. Being bored is boring and dull. Most people would even exaggerate by exclaiming they were dying from boredom.
However, what if being bored was the key to something new?
There were many days when being bored was my last resort; to the point where Netflix and social media platforms surpassed their societal duties to provide endless entertainment. Nothing feels more uncomfortable than the restlessness that originates from boredom.
Nonetheless, being bored can actually stimulate your brain into being more active, creative and overall, more motivational. Being bored allows the brain’s imagination to grow and new ideas to be born.
As a little experiment on myself, I decided to test an idea: the idea that creativity, motivation and activeness originates from being bored. I started out by sitting around my dorm room watching Netflix and searching Facebook for the most recent memes and videos. However, the new information soon became old information that began to get annoying and uninteresting.
After a short period of just laying around, I began to get bored. Like I stated earlier, being bored is my least favorite activity. I prefer to be active and find things to do whether it be homework, work or extra-curricular activities. In a way, I always block out the concept of boredom and ignore any activity that could possibly arise the feeling inside of me.
The first side-effect that I noticed from being bored was that my body began to feel restless in the sense that sitting still wouldn’t cut it anymore. At that moment, my brain clicked into a groove that came up with all of the different ways that I could exercise my body. I could go to the gym (haha), clean my dorm room, walk to the dining hall or even reorganize my closet. Even though these are some of the activities that my brain came up with, I fought the urge to do the same old routine that would be to complete the tasks listed above, so I just continued to sit there.
The second side-effect that I noticed from being bored was a slight headache. Not only was my body restless, but I now felt a headache arising. My first thought was to get some fresh air and maybe go for a walk. Instead, I drank some water and took an Advil. The boredom was becoming slightly unbearable because there was nothing to do.
At that point, I felt that it was important to think of something to do that I normally wouldn’t do or that was something that didn’t normally occur on my daily routine. Some of the thoughts were kind of ridiculous in terms of activities that I could do to keep myself from not being bored using only the items that I had available in my dorm room. I thought of building a house out of a deck of cards, drawing pictures of nature (mainly flowers because I’m not extremely artistic) and even found myself playing M.A.S.H., which is an old trivia-type game that I would play in grade school during lunch hours to pass the time with friends.
Even though this was not a proper “experiment” and I basically just went with the flow, I realized that my creativity was sparked by being bored. I was energized to try something new, excited to see the outcome and felt achievement at the smallest thing, such as drawing a pretty, pink flower that a five-year-old could probably draw better than me.
My point holds that boredom can spark many other emotions and creativities that we may not have realized before because of our fast-paced society. Everyone seems to be always on the move and going, going, going before they can catch a breath. I have experienced that reality myself. I lose all sense of my imagination by only seeing the concrete black and white way of life when in fact, there are millions of colors that exist.
Therefore, I challenge you to see life through the eyes of a five-year old. Be bored, get creative and see the beauty in something that we usually try to ignore. Who knows, you could be the next Benjamin Franklin.
