I have started to get really excited to just go and sit on my couch on the lower patio. We redid our patio last November, at the end of the season. and I hadn’t had the chance to enjoy it much yet. So the other day, the sun was shining, and I went down there to just lay down on the couch in the sun. I closed my eyes, put my head back, and felt the sun shining on my face.

I realized at that moment that I need more of that in my life. Doing nothing for a minute revives you. I really felt that as I was lying there. When I opened my eyes again and got up, I thought about how I couldn’t wait to do that again. I need to do that more often. And I will.

Usually, I’m the person that has so much to do. Normally, I would think, “I shouldn’t be sitting here doing nothing.” But something changed sitting there in the sun. 

I realized that doing nothing is actually doing something. I was allowing my brain to rest, and there is no reason to feel guilty about that. I want to embrace those “boring” moments when I don’t have something to do. Having a few moments like that makes me more energized in the other moments of the day too.

I think we live in a time when we are afraid to be bored. It’s especially true the younger you are. In a digital world, everyone is almost scared of not having something to do.

What is boredom anyway, though?

If I were to ask a typical kid, they would probably say being bored means not having external stimulation. Nothing to do.  But isn’t that just a perspective? Is it really that there is nothing to do?

When my generation was growing up, we didn’t have smartphones, iPads, and personal computers. Yet, we always found something to do. I’m not saying we didn’t play video games. I do have very vivid memories of playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and Bubble Bobble on Nintendo. However, there were also so many times when my sister and I were more imaginative. We’d create a make-believe restaurant in our basement, write up menus and invite our parents to come to our restaurant. I also remember building a lot of forts and making up dances on the sidewalk cracks in my driveway.

I get that a traditional understanding of “boredom” can make some people feel uncomfortable. But it’s just another example of shifting our perspective. I believe being bored more can help us. Always giving external input to our brain doesn’t give our brain the chance to recharge…or come up with ideas on its own.

I’ve started to dig into this idea of boredom to learn more about its benefits. As a parent, I also want my kids to become more accepting of the idea. I think many parents are so focused on just trying to please their child. Letting their kids have access to devices is an easy way to ensure they’re always entertained. However, that neglects thinking about the effects that may have in the long run.

While kids will likely protest boredom, it’s up to us to help them see that there is a world beyond their devices. This strong aversion to boredom is very specific to this digital generation. So I’m trying to be careful about the level of exposure my kids have to their devices. 

I learned that lack of boredom actually has a negative effect on our brains too!

A Mayo Clinic article I found states that with all this new external digital stimulation, the creative and problem-solving areas of our brain aren’t as active. Remember that thing we used to have to do – that thing called thinking? We’re not developing the areas of our brain involved in that as much anymore. We can click or google anything to get instant “answers.” There’s no more working it out or figuring it out on our own. We don’t come up with our own games or entertainment because our devices serve up endless entertainment.

Another article cites some famous examples of boredom having an incredible potential to keep up creative.

Did you know that the famous Harry Potter series was dreamt up by a “bored” JK Rowling? Back in 1990, before social media and streaming, JK Rowling had nothing pressing on her mind as she was looking out of a train window. She allowed the scenery in the window to inspire her, and she dreamt up a story based around a scraggly-looking boy she’d previously seen standing on the platform earlier. And, well, now you know how well that moment of boredom helped her…

According to that article by psychologist John Eastwood (who co-authored a book about the psychology of boredom), boredom is a precursor for creative thinking. When we’re doing basically nothing, our brains are relaxed. That allows in new ideas and creativity. Eastwood explains that in the absence of something occupying our thoughts, the creativity area of the brain kicks in to fill the space.

Our world is always so “plugged in.” What if we unplugged a bit more?

It’s funny because it’s affecting us all, not just the younger generations. My mom was a late adopter of technology, and we finally got her an iPhone about 5 years ago. Being from a generation where all of this is so foreign, she was initially very resistant to it. Yet, now she can’t even go an hour without thinking about whether her phone is plugged in. It’s become a bit of a running joke in our family. We’re always teasing her, “Is your phone plugged in?” (She doesn’t really understand that it doesn’t need to be plugged in allll day long.)

Meanwhile, I’m almost never plugging my phone in, to the point that it absolutely annoys John. My battery is notoriously at 2% because I prefer to just let it drain, not wanting to think about plugging it in until the end of the day. My argument is that it is healthier for the battery to just let it drain and then recharge it to full again. But, in a way, that’s also analogous to how I think about life.

I think we all need to stop plugging ourselves in all day long. Let’s use our brains more naturally instead of being plugged in, and let’s allow ourselves to recharge more naturally, too. Maybe by sitting in the sun on the patio…