“Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.” ~ Austin Kleon
My 10 year old granddaughter flopped next to me on the couch and stared at the ceiling.
“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked.
She sighed. “Fine. I’m just bored.”
“That’s okay,” I told her. “It’s not a bad thing to be bored.”
She gave me a funny look. I tried to explain that boredom can be a meaningful experience that leads to creative work.
Which got me thinking about how I’m thwarting that kind of deeper thoughtfulness for myself on a daily basis.
“I’m bored, Mom”
When I was a kid, “I’m sooo bored” was a refrain my mother often heard from me. On the cul-de-sac where I grew up, I had two choices for playmates, so many long summer days I was left to my own devices. My mother wasn’t one to entertain me. If I complained too much, she’d likely give me a dreaded chore, like washing the walls in the garage.
In the late 50s and 60s, there were no cell phones, iPads or video games. Daytime TV programming (three channels) ran soap operas and old movies. We didn’t live in walking distance to town.
So, I read. I invented games. I drew. I made up stories. I created little books out of stapled paper. I fiddled with the gadgets in my dad’s workbench. I sewed. I might spend hours lying on the living room floor staring at the stuccoed ceiling, looking for shapes that resembled animals or people. I learned to entertain myself.
Studies show boredom might spark creativity because a restless mind hungers for stimulation. Maybe traversing an expanse of tedium creates a sort of cognitive forward motion. “A bored mind moves into a daydreaming state,” says psychologist Sandi Mann.
That’s when creativity comes to play
“I think boredom is the beginning of every authentic act. Boredom opens up the space for new engagements. Without boredom, no creativity. If you are not bored, you just stupidly enjoy the situation in which you are.” ~ Slavoj Žižek
Psychologists worry that we don’t wrestle with these slow moments these days. We eliminate them. We actively try to wipe every moment of boredom in our lives.
I’ve noticed lately how I fill those boring moments with a stream of mindless distractions that lead nowhere. I play mindless word games on my phone. I’m getting really fast, but so what? I almost always have the news on. It fills my mind with a litany of rehashed business from the last hour.
I need to make a conscious effort to put the phone away and turn the TV off so my brain can reset itself. I know from past experience that quiet times, like when I’m flat on my back staring at the ceiling, lead to some of my best ideas. My mind needs to wander freely, not be constantly bombarded with stimuli.
Boredom may lead to something productive. Care to join me watching the grass grow?
Read How Being Bored out of you Mind Makes You More Creative
Read Boredom Is Good for You: The surprising benefits of stultification
Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist:
Multi-finalist award winning novel In the Context of Love
Picture book Gordy and the Ghost Crab
Latest poetry chapbook: Sleepwalker
Connect with Linda: LinkTree
Good point. I remember reading a piece in a freshman comp anthology from a class I taught about the importance of boredom. The author used the example of staring out car windows on long family road trips. Lately, I find that daydreams intrude in the oddest moments, sometimes even when I’m reading fiction, if the story is less than inspiring. I need to go stare out some windows.
Oh, that reminds me, when I was in the car with my parents as a girl, I’d look at the houses we passed and imagine the lives of the people inside. I kept myself entertained for hours. Thanks for commenting!
I absolutely agree.
We need those ‘bored or “empty” moments to give us space to think.
At home and at work it’s often difficult to disconnect and think, there are too many distractions and obligations, so I go out for a walk on my own or with my grandson, preferably to a park, and take time to breathe and think.
Thanks for the reminder 🙂
You are welcome! Yes, home and chores are certainly a distraction! I walk my dog or bicycle… which reminds me, I need to carry a notepad in my bike carrier.
I have two daily practices that can seem boring but I believe actually spark my creativity. One is meditation 20-30 minutes a day. The other is morning pages handwritten daily with plenty of pauses as I contemplate how blissful boring my life is most days. After I fill a notebook, I throw it away. If I do write something worth working on further I tear just that page out. I get many of my blog posts this way😁
Both are good ideas. Meditation and journaling are great for centering yourself and for learning how to focus. I really enjoy blogging, as I know you do, too. 😊