What to Do When You Feel Bored
By: Emily Kingsley
Tags: Self Improvement, Life, Self, Culture, Habits

Whatever you do, don’t google “What to do when you feel bored.”

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but a lot of the exciting things in my life have vanished. Waiting to use the spin bikes at my gym, standing shoulder to shoulder at a crowded bar to order a $14 drink and getting my teeth cleaned all seem like distant memories.

Instead, I’ve been spending my time staring at my pixelated coworkers during our Zoom meetings, painting my nails three different colors in one day and taking swigs of white wine out of the bottle when I walk past the fridge (after 5pm…I’m not a monster).

Last week, when I realized how routine all these changes have become, I found myself overcome with a strange new feeling. It wasn’t stress or anxiety. It wasn’t anger or fear.

I just felt bored.

Maybe this has happened to you too.

At first, I didn’t know what to do. Life usually feels frenetic and crazy which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for boredom.

But then I decided to just sit with it for the weekend. I didn’t try to bust it, crush it or fight it. I just let it wash over me. And you won’t believe what happened.

When Monday came, I felt great. I actually put on button pants before I made the commute from my bed to my coffee pot to my desk. I crushed my meetings and was productive all day.

I’ve been reflecting on my weekend of boredom and here are the take-home points I came up with:

Feeling Bored is a Luxury

Even though I didn’t like feeling bored, I recognize that there are a lot of stressed out, scared people who would jump at the chance to feel bored. I am lucky to be healthy and well fed at a time when many people aren’t.

I always love a challenge, and most of the time, my mind is turning with new ideas and projects to try. But shutting down the gears for a while won’t result in lost wages or harmful consequences to myself or others.

So while boredom might not be the end goal, it’s still something to be grateful for.

Boredom is not an enemy

The brain is a strange place. Even when you’re not engaged in a particular topic or task, your neurons are firing in all kinds of dark nether regions in your mind. In fact, letting your thoughts wander can increase your creativity which might help you later on in your more productive pursuits.

When I spent the weekend allowing myself to feel bored, I was surprised at some of the long-buried childhood memories that popped up in my mind. I enjoyed spending some time thinking about my grandmother’s boiled frosting cakes and her obsession with gelatin.

Had I been focused on finding new remote teaching strategies or finishing one of the books on my nightstand, I doubt those memories would have bubbled to the surface.

Separate Boredom from Negative Emotions

There are a lot of negative emotions spiraling out of control right now. Every news headline and trip to the grocery store seems fraught with anxiety, frustration and exhaustion.

But boredom is not the same as these emotions. It just means that you don’t have something urgent or fascinating taking up your attention and time at the moment. Boredom itself isn’t dangerous or harmful.

You can have things you care about, hobbies that interest you and pressing responsibilities and still experience periods of boredom. You can even feel bored while you are being productive.

I have a giant inflatable piece of pizza and sometimes in the summer, I put it in the lake near my house and float on it. It is boring. It is wonderful.

Lean into your Boredom

During my weekend-long sabbatical into boredom, I thought about trying to start an ambitious new project. I considered cooking, knitting, sewing or deep cleaning. Nothing really caught my attention.

So instead of doing something to fight the boredom, I just dug into to some very boring tasks around my house. I sorted out my sock drawer. I pulled the weeds between the bricks in my walkway. I vacuumed dead bugs from inside my windows.

Was it fun? No.

Did it make me feel better? No.

But at least I didn’t have to worry about weeding, socks or bugs the following weekend.

Lessons from Nature

Lots of plants and animals experience reduced periods of activity, followed by amazing biological feats.

I have a plant called a Clivia that has to undergo a period of dormancy in order to flower. So each fall, I put it in a dark, cold corner of my basement and forget about it. It does nothing all winter long. It doesn’t grow, it doesn’t get watered, it sees no light.

Then in the first week of March, it sends up a glossy, thick green bud. The bud bursts into a stunning crown of flowers.

Without those few months of downtime, the plant would never blossom.

And many animals do the similar things. Everyone knows bears hibernate for the winter, but there are lots of other animals that go into something called torpor. Torpor is a state where animals reduce their heart rate, metabolic activity and waste production. Animals in torpor don’t eat, move or respond to stimuli.

Alligators sometimes get frozen into ice while they are in torpor. Frogs can freeze solid in torpor. Even hummingbirds and chickadees go into torpor so that they can conserve energy and make it through the night.

Then guess what — they all wake up, rested and ready for sex, for food, for frolicking and play!