There Are a Thousand Ways to Get?Bored

Not everyone enjoys physical activities, but they yield results. Boredom can do the same.

“The human condition: inconstancy, boredom, and restlessness.”?—?Blaise Pascal

The study “Why Being Bored Might Not Be a Bad Thing After All ,” conducted by the Academy of Management Discoveries, revealed that boredom can be quite positive if used strategically.

We all know that the human body was built to move.

Our physiological structure has unique architecture and design to handle practically any type of terrain, and, of course, a mind capable of adapting to unexpected situations. This biological combination has been a competitive advantage and a survival differential.

Currently, gyms are full because we’ve learned, through hard lessons or marketing influence, that physical activity is good for our health and, in many ways, for our ego.

But therapeutic offices are also full because we’ve learned, with sweet rewards or marketing influence, that there are massive doses of dopamine right at our fingertips.

Our daily dedication has sculpted well-defined bodies, with breathtaking curves that impress some and bring tears to others. We are in a honeymoon phase with our appearance like never before in history.

But it seems like something is missing.

We work endlessly, achieve goals, and keep our schedules full of activities because we must never give up.

Speaking of humanity in general, and the consequences of the excessive use of technology by the current living generation, we are under the powerful influence of digital mechanisms that permeate our entire lives, from home to work and back, never ceasing to monitor us along the way.

I don’t know if we are watched to teach algorithms or if we are manipulated by them.

Recent studies show how addicted we are to using our electronic devices to fill all our moments, even when we are in company. We pull out our phones in the middle of a conversation just to see if any notifications might have been missed. Really?

Living healthily and elegantly without the constant popping of the blessed cell phone has become increasingly difficult, even if it’s just an excuse to divert attention from what we are doing.

We’ve become digital hedonists.

We are unable to pay attention to what is happening right in front of us. Everything has become boring, and almost nothing can offer us any real pleasure.

Being alone, in silence, is out of the question.

In the midst of the crowd, we retreat into our digital shells, in the comfort and security of a pair of wireless headphones.

Boredom is a response, a cry from our bodies.

Like in physical activities, when the body reacts with pain, sweat, and tears, but over time, it offers resistance, agility, and strength, boredom is also a warning.

It is the brain’s response that what we are doing is dull, uncomfortable, and perhaps “unnecessary.” But if we persist, some positive response may come, over time, in the form of ideas. Ideas that confirm intellectual activity or a new creative way of doing things differently.

Mental and physical discomfort is an opportunity to find more “strength.”

In the study by the Academy of Management Discoveries, three groups of people were subjected to different experiences. The more boring the experiences, the more creative their responses and reactions were in subsequent situations.

These findings are probably not surprising to Sandi Mann, a senior psychology professor at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. Mann is the author of “The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom Is Good.”

At its core, boredom is “a search for neural stimulation that hasn’t been satisfied,” says Mann. “If we can’t find that satisfaction, our mind tries to create it.” As demonstrated by the study and many others before it, boredom can allow for creativity and problem-solving, letting the mind wander and explore imagination. “There’s no other way to get that stimulation, so you have to go into your head,” says Mann.

You might be surprised by what you discover by doing so.

It seems that the brain, deprived of external pleasures, starts creating its own ways to color our emotions, using discomfort as fuel to go to unknown places. Exercising mental muscles is something most people don’t appreciate, so we buy as many distractions as possible to fill these voids.

A diet based on shallow digital entertainment and processed foods can be a dangerous way to lose connection with reality.

We need healthy bodies (not necessarily thin) to travel the world and balanced minds to travel where our bodies cannot go physically.

As Pascal said, the condition of the human being is “inconstancy, boredom, and restlessness.” We are this invention of nature, a factory of ideas with infinite desires, but with the challenge of refining our relationship with the decisions we make.

For that, efforts must be made uncomfortably on our muscles and?brains.

Boredom is the opportunity to try things we don’t like, but it will stimulate new forms of thinking that can bring unique answers and original solutions.

Living eternally with the sweet digital pleasure at our fingertips is dangerous.

Studies have shown, for example, that modern tools, including emails, social networks, and dating apps, can harm mental health?—?hence taking a break can be a valuable opportunity to recharge.

Regular, well-programmed boredom can take your mind to unthinkable places.

Like climbing mountains or taking long walks, watching an opera we don’t understand anything about, reading a massive and tiresome book, spending moments in silence, or visiting that annoying relative; maybe watching an old, black and white, 3-hour movie in the original language, who knows?

Every time your brain is trapped in unpleasant situations, it seeks new answers, inevitably.

Boredom is a kind of medicine. Bitter, I know, but it can reconfigure your view of the world and find the creativity that you imagine exists only in pleasurable situations.

Comfort and pleasure tell your mind that there is no need to do anything, and everything is fine. How can you be creative if there are no challenges? How can you find solutions if there are no problems?

Boredom can evoke many actions: retreat into the phone, sleep, turn on the TV, go to the gym, go out into the street, read a book, shout out the window, curse someone, stay silent, build a castle, anything can happen.

It is only effective, from a creativity standpoint, if it drags you out of your comfort?zone.

Boredom will always bother us. After all, it is a biological complaint because of the extra effort.

Deep down, from a primitive point of view, what we really want is to be at peace in the “Dopamine Party” Open Bar.

Tony Robbins says, “Too much tranquility creates weak people, weak people create bad times, bad times generate strong people, and strong people create great moments.” I don’t know how true that is, but I believe that every challenge, mental or physical, is just an idea if not put into practice.

In 1666, Isaac Newton, bored, exercising physics, observed an apple falling from a tree and reflected on what made it “fall.” This insight led him to formulate the law of universal gravitation. Boredom just scored.

Physical effort tires and causes pain, but in many ways, the results are inevitable. Mental efforts make you sleepy, very sleepy, but the results are also inevitable.

Both give pleasure, they just require a different kind of dedication. The difference is the pride we feel for not giving?up.

The brain, for the sake of survival, will always avoid spending energy. But if you prove to it that this “effort” is worthwhile, it will go with you, complaining, but it will.

Voluntary sessions of boredom can be a beautiful strategy to save your day, your career, your company, your family, and even the world. It depends a lot on how it is done and with what purpose.

There are “a thousand ways” to get bored; invent one!