Whether I was armed with Play-Doh (as pictured) or to-do lists (those came later), my default has always been doing.
As a kid, the one place I'd get a break from my drive to do things was the car. Growing up, my family took lots of long car trips. And it was the 90s, so we weren't watching movies in the backseat; I was just bored. I didn't have the option of doing anything, I just… sat.
That's where I discovered the magic of boredom. I learned—bored is when I'd get my best story ideas. Bored is when I'd think the most interesting and weird and magical things.
Today, I find the magic of boredom in walks with no headphones. Drives without music. Waiting rooms with no book. It's a space I create, intentionally—but I do just that. Because sometimes, my most magical thinking is “done” when I'm not doing anything at all.
- Dr. Sarah Glova, Co-Editor of 8&21 and Play Doh Fun Factory enthusiast
I have spent countless hours volunteering at ballet performances. It can be incredibly exciting, being backstage with dancers before they step into the spotlight. But there's also a lot of waiting.
At one performance, I overheard some young dancers complaining that they were bored. My daughter, one of the dancers, hissed— “Don’t let my mom hear you say that you're bored—she'll make you clean something!”
Ha! She was right! That was always my go-to response to boredom. “You’re bored? Then please go dust the blinds.”
Backstage, the talk of boredom instantly vanished. The young dancers co-created a creative and silly game instead, passing the time with giggles instead of complaints.
Lesson learned: We can complain about boredom… or, we can let boredom be the spark we need to activate creative ideas!
- Dr. Sarah Egan Warren, Co-Editor of 8&21 and Boredom Motivator
Boredom as a signal
“[Boredom] tells our body, it tells our mind, ‘Hey, maybethis is a signalthat whatever you’re doing is not stimulating enough.’ Maybe, if you’re doing some kind of learning, then maybe you need to take it up a notch and push yourself to learn something a bit harder, because you’re in that boredom state.
Maybe you’re doing something and it’s just not engaging you.
And again, it’s this signal to be like, ‘Ok, what should I be engaging with?’”
- Dr. Alicia Walf, Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic, in “The Science of Boredom and Your Brain”
Boredom as a question
The German word for “boredom” expresses this: langeweile, a compound made of “lange,” which means “long,” and “weile” meaning “a while.” And slow-moving time can feel torturous for people who can’t feel peaceful alone with their minds. Learning to do so is why learning to be bored is so crucial…
In other words, always trust when boredom speaks to you. Instead of avoiding it, heed its messages, because they’ll keep you true to yourself.
It might be beneficial to think through why something bores you. You will get a whole new angle on things.”
- From, “Boredom is not a problem to be solved. It’s the last privilege of a free mind” in The Guardian, written by Gayatri Devi
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Way to take a pause and give 3 minutes to your practice of pursuing awesome
by exploring this issue's theme. You rock!
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