Bored

How do you react to being bored? Boredom is a great fear to many people and modern society seems to treat it as a disease. But what if there are good aspects of being bored?

Fear of boredom

We live in a society that constantly tells us that busyness is good and expected and that boredom is bad and scary. So, we must be constantly on the go, scheduled to the max, trying to multi-task so we can do multiple things at once.

I have heard of psychological studies where subjects chose to inflict physical pain on themselves rather than being bored for a time period. In one study almost half the participants chose to give themselves a mild electrical shock after being left alone for 15 minutes. That sounds extreme to me. But many people today fear being left alone with their thoughts.

Why is that? Is it because we are no longer taught how to handle it, or is there a deeper level? Many people fear their thoughts and the questions that come up in their minds when not distracted.

Boredom isn’t really emptiness. It is an opportunity to see and confront things you have spent so much time blocking out from your mind.

©Ed Schlotzhauer

Constant entertainment

To combat boredom, and its disquieting thoughts, we immerse ourselves in entertainment. Our always on, always connected life allows us to have 24/7 distraction numbing our minds.

It seems like everyone is on their phones all the time. Whether walking down the street, waiting for a bus, grocery shopping, or driving, most people are on their phone. If not, they have their headphones on listening to music or podcasts.

At home, if people are not on the phone, the TV is on. The hundreds of streaming channels provides limitless distraction.

In a life saturated with constant stimulation, we forget how to simply be.

Fear of missing out

Fear of missing out is a very real thing that society had trained us to know. We usually think of it as needing to always be connected so we do not become irrelevant. But let me turn that around and ask what are we missing out on by not letting ourselves be bored?

That sounds strange, but if we cannot exist without constant external stimulation and if we cannot stand to be alone with our thoughts, that sounds like a drug addiction. That is a very dangerous state to voluntarily put ourselves in.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped seeing boredom as a natural state and started treating it as a problem that needs fixing.

©Ed Schlotzhauer

Need quiet

Being uncomfortable with being bored, especially being alone with our thoughts, is not something to be feared. It is actually a signal showing us we have ignored our inner self too long.

Our brain needs quiet time occasionally. We need to reflect, listen to our thoughts, daydream. This is a self-organizing time for our brain. It lets us subconsciously evaluate and make sense of things. We confront and understand our thoughts and our brains weave together new understanding.

It also stimulates creativity. This is one reason I highly recommend it for photographers and other creatives. I believe it is important for us to be self-aware. We need to understand our motivations and beliefs. Artists bring our vision to other people in our work. It is important to understand what is behind our vision and what we want to do and create. And who we really are.

Coping

I frequently advocate mindfulness as a necessary component of the creative process. Mindfulness is being self-aware. Being self-aware comes from spending time alone with our thoughts and feelings. Call this meditation if you like. But when you start out, meditation = boredom. Within the boredom you discover things.

My definition of mindfulness involves being very aware of what is around you, what it looks like, and what it means to you. You cannot do this effectively if you are pumping entertainment into your head all the time. Mindfulness generally thrives in quiet.

Another facet of coping with boredom is exercise. When we move our body without stimulation from music or TikTok clips, our mind is also energized and can wander its own path. It can lead to interesting ends, or to nothing special. Either way, though, it is good exercise for the mind, too.

This sounds a lot like some of the advice I like from Jay Maisel: get out there, move, go out empty and find what is there. This all involves being outside and reacting to the world. Our head needs to be engaged in the creative task. And being out in daylight has mental benefits.

©Ed Schlotzhauer

Creativity

Artists constantly chase creativity. Perhaps photographers more than most, because our field is so overcrowded. Can boredom help?

It sounds counterintuitive, but research shows that boredom creates a mental space and opportunity for us to turn our thoughts inward. To reflect, daydream, and make connections that cannot happen easily when there is too much “noise”.

One study found that after being given a boring task, people were more creative. It is thought that the boredom allowed their minds to wander, to use their imagination in new ways.

I know my experience is that if I say, “I will be creative now,” the results will be fairly disappointing. Not entirely uncreative, just not up to my expectations.

But when I let my mind wander without pressure or demands, if I do some simple tasks completely unrelated to photography, of perhaps read a book, then I am much more likely to do or discover something I would call creative.

Photography

I find that creativity in my photography must be tended and coaxed, not forced. It is like planting a seed. You water it, fertilize it, and wait patiently for it to grow.

I tend my creative ideas by spending alone time with myself, by letting my mind wander, by stimulating myself with new ideas and new knowledge about unrelated things. Browsing art and writing by other people I admire helps fertilize the soil. Then picking up my camera and going out wandering, to see what I find lets the ideas connect. Sometimes I discover a new way of seeing or new sights I never noticed.

I believe that even when our mind is wandering, we have control over it. Not to direct it, but to oversee. We are participating in the process, not just being a spectator. I view it like someone inspecting fruit. The conveyor belt is going by with fruit (ideas) on it. As they go by, we glance at each one, throw some out as bad, set some aside as small, but OK for making jam, and pronounce some as very good to keep.

More exciting than plants, to me, is that our creative output is often completely new and exciting. We never know what will come up, or when, or where. We must just accept it and be ready to use it. This is when our photography is elevated from the technical to art.

Explore boredom. It has benefits. You never know where it might lead. Creative ideas pop up unexpected, often after a spell of boredom.

©Ed Schlotzhauer

My situation

It is easy to preach to others about what seems easy to us. I am an introvert and an only child. Those things make it easier for me to handle boredom. I grew up practicing it. I like people, but I am also comfortable being alone. Sometimes I prefer it. Not that I want to go off on a month-long solo wilderness journey. But I am happy spending a day alone with myself. No radio, no TV, no internet.

From observing other people, I realize some are terrified of being bored. That is to be expected in our society. If you are, I advocate practicing handling boredom. Start small if necessary. I believe the benefits are worth it.

Note

Boredom is a huge and complex subject. I have not and cannot deal with it in depth. The boredom I am describing is not part of any mental disorder. Neither is it an existential situation where you find no meaning in your life. Seek help if you find yourself there.