Boredom
My mind rebels against boredom.
When I find myself lacking external stimulation, my knee-jerk response is to seek out some means of filling that void: something to read, something to listen to, something to scribble or type or exercise or otherwise occupy my deactivated digits and neurons and attention.
I know I’m not alone in this, and I know I’m capable of muffling and rewiring that impulse. But that knowledge and capacity doesn’t change my default setting, which is to fill the emptiness with activities and entertainments.
I find this subconscious nudge away from boredom is particularly pronounced and pernicious when I’ve made some kind of change to my environment and norms. When I’ve moved to a new physical location, for instance, or when my work or exercise habits have undergone a substantial collection of tweaks, my determination to recalibrate things in a positive, prolific, healthful, and sustainable way often results in a jam-packed calendar that leaves little room for intellectual and psychological flex time: periods in which it is understood that I’ll do little or nothing, which gives my brain some breathing room and provides permission to not go go go for a spell, and to be okay with that.
You don’t have to be a workaholic to succumb to the seductive momentum of “doing things.”
Spacing out with something on Netflix or a podcast playing in the background is arguably just as much an activity as doing paid work, going for a run, or having a chat with a friend.
The distinction here is that being bored is actually a little bit psychologically distressing, and most of us have reflexes that help guide us away from that kind of distress.
Being bored on a semi-regular basis, though, can force us to flex our imaginations, dig deeper than we would otherwise be compelled to dig into personal issues and persistent, just-below-the-surface concerns, and unspool overwrought, overworked neurons.
There’s evidence that experiencing periodic spans of boredom is psychologically healthful: exercising and amplifying our capacity for focus, creativity, self-control, and our taste for novelty.
But my own anecdotal experience is why I try to catch myself when I fail to work periods of nothingness into a recently updated schedule.
I notice benefits to my thinking and mood when I allow myself to be bored for even five or ten minutes a day; it feels similar to but different from what I gain from meditation, and I notice its absence in the same way I notice when I’ve (for whatever reason) failed to maintain a consistent exercise routine.
I’ve also found that if I’m ever stuck in a truly unmotivated, don’t-feel-like-doing-anything mindset, consciously forcing myself to do nothing at all—to sit in my own head for a while—makes my brain crave stimulation, which then often results in a period of enthusiastic focus and activity.
Some people have boredom-inducing forcing functions built into their lives, because of the nature of their work, home life, or some other variable that leaves them with periods of nothingness that are tricky or impossible to fill with any kind of typical activity.
Something to consider, if that’s you, is trying to lean into that boredom a bit—just for a while—to see if it adds something to your non-bored moments (as opposed to psychologically struggling against the boredom, and doing everything you can to fill those moments with your smartphone or a magazine or whatever else).
Boredom isn’t pleasant, but it can be counterintuitively, holistically productive, at times.
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Projects
Brain Lenses:Materials & Peak Experiences
Let’s Know Things:Extreme Heat
Curiosity Weekly:July 13, 2021
One Sentence News: Info / Subscribe
Interesting & Useful
Some things to click:
Figures In The Sky(cultural differences & similarities in the stories we tell about the stars)
Nasubi(this is such a wild story; reality TV in Japan is something else)
Synthetic Messenger(I love this concept, very clever)
Juggling From Above(novel perspective on a familiar activity)
Forgotten Trope(fascinating pop-cultural analysis/history here)
A Browsable Petascale Reconstruction of the Human Cortex(exactly what it says it is: science is just really neat sometimes)
The Most Detailed 3D Map of the Universe Ever Made(speaking of neat science)
PS: if you like this sort of thing, subscribing to Curiosity Weekly (link in the previous section) nets you an email containing just curated links every Tuesday.
Outro
Still dealing with some car-weirdness this week: I’ve got a new catalytic converter installed (after the old one was cut out by someone who stole the car, presumably to sell the CC for scrap) but now there’s maybe something wrong with the braking system, which may or may not be related to that recent theft-related surgery.
That said, I’m very fortunate to live in such a walkable area and to work from home, otherwise this (expensive! but not debilitating) headache would be substantially more worrisome and painful than it is.
Beyond car-concerns, things are going well, and I’m finally caught up enough on everything that I’ve been able to redouble my near-future project efforts, which has been very rewarding. Looking forward to announcing a few things soon :)
I’ve also been able to reestablish my running habit (my legs are crying about this, but in a good way) and daily guitar practice (my currently callous-less fingers are crying about this, but in a good way)—both of which have felt really good, and both of which are representative of a renewed feeling of vigor and healthfulness that hasn’t been consistently present for me over the past year-and-a-half, but which I’m very much enjoying, now.
How’re things going on your end? Any big concerns? Tiny victories? Endeavors you’re undertaking or looking forward to or dreading?
If you’re keen to drop me a line and tell me what’s up, say hello, introduce yourself, and/or just want to vent to a stranger from the internet—you can reach me by responding to this newsletter or at colin@exilelifestyle.com.
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Puffin Island: A Voyage To One Of Scotland’s Remotest Habitats.