We no longer have the problem of 'being bored' these days because there's always so much that we can do. Smartphones, high-speed internet, and a smorgasbord of content online has afforded us all with so much to do that we often find ourselves not having enough time to actually consume all the media that we want to consume or do every task on our to-do list.
We are constantly on the go, always striving for a certain future goal, or always making sure that we spend every minute of every day efficiently in order for us to be as productive as we can be. And as a result, we're doing more over a shorter period of time, but at the same time, there are record levels of stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and other mental health issues stemming from this evolved culture of productivity and the need to do more, and to get to our destination as quickly as we can.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with striving to achieve our goals. But, as Megan Feldman Bettencourt writes on Deseret, it appears that the casualties of this fast-paced mindset and lifestyle in the modern age have been rest, relaxation, hobbies, unstructured time, in-person social connection and even boredom itself.
Pushing ourselves and taking on challenges is a noble thing to do. It helps us discover the limits of our stamina, strength, abilities, and capabilities. But sometimes, we forget the other side of the coin which requires our bodies to recharge and replenish the energy that it spent. Overstimulation and the bombardment of information on our brains have us gasping for air to breathe, mentally and emotionally.
Honing in on boredom, Bettencourt asserts that boredom is just as important to children's development as all the other structured activities we plan for them. Just as much as we are engaged in the activities that we do in order for us to maximize the output and benefit we get from them, we also need to take time to disengage ourselves from the things that occupy us physically, mentally, and emotionally.
As an example, Albert Einstein often spent time away from friends, family, and work simply to do nothing but think. Boredom, or this act of being present in the moment, allows our minds to run free. It gives our imagination time to be creative and to resolve that itching feeling of "wanting to do something". It's that nagging deep inside us that will cause us to create "play" for ourselves.
This type of "play" is defined by child development experts as an activity a child chooses to do, rather than is obliged to do. It's basically those moments when we were kids and we created our own games from nothing, making our own rules, and enforcing those rules among the participants. It's those times when we as children built forts, told stories among ourselves which transported us to a world of fantasy built by our own imagination.
Nowadays, we merely consume what others have already built for us, and we wonder why we get so easily bogged down and stressed. We have no time to chill, although it is understandable that working adults find themselves in situations like these more often than not, but perhaps, this is the time that society experiences a paradigm shift. Workplace burnout has risen to alarming levels, with at least 55% of people saying they can't find work-life balance.
Perhaps this is the negative side effect of having technology and information at the tips of our fingers and in the palms of our hands. And perhaps culture has nudged us to such a point where it's horrendous to be doing nothing. But we need to recognize that human beings need time to flourish and to just be.
So, maybe as working adults, the best thing we can do is to simply find those moments of "just being, and doing nothing". To find rest for our minds, even as we simply space out while at work, or as we find ourselves sitting outside a cafe, looking into the horizon, and just wondering how wonderful life really is at that moment in time.
(Image credit: Katie Moum/Unsplash)
Comments (0)