The Healing Power of Boredom
Welcome back once again everyone! Last time we talked about the important place of chaos and confusion in creating new opportunities and improving our lives. Today, I want to carry this discussion a little further with an observation of how we can give this process a bit of momentum in our daily lives.
As humans, we are all (to one extent or another) creatures of habit. We tend to fill up whatever space is available in our lives with habits, some good, some bad, and many neutral. When chaos is introduced into our lives, these habits tend to be our first port of call for restoring a measure of normality. But when you’re attempting to change something about your daily life, normality may not be what you need.
Last week, I said that chaos and confusion can work positively, as a necessary component of change. A friend of mine even told me recently that confusion causes neurological changes in the brain which helps us to make new connections! But this week, I want to touch on another sort of disruption that may be made to work for us: the disruption of habits.
My son, Harry, shared recently that he has been making an effort to escape his desktop. He has minor ADHD, and since he uses the same machine for work and play, he’s found it too easy to find his entire day swallowed by one thing or another online. I think a lot of people can relate to that these days. I’ve even heard of a lot of people recovering from severe anxiety and other sorts of mental distress simply by limiting screentime.
But screens aren’t my main point here. In Harry’s case, he tells me that he’s been able to refocus his time into more reading and more creative writing—two of his favorite things—but only AFTER he had emptied out some of his usual, easier habits.
In other words, it’s worth considering the constructive power of BOREDOM, in addition to the other things we’ve discussed. Oftentimes, the habits we fall into become expectations, and gain a kind of hold over us. In a way, we start to feel that we need these negative (or neutral) habits, leaving no room for the positive ones that we might really prefer. Try and force a new habit in all of a sudden, and it has to compete with the already-established ones. But distance yourself from some of these old time-wasters, and you’ll find that you have to fill the time somehow.
So if you feel that too much of your time is taken up by mindless TV, or browsing the internet, or similar, it’s worth considering the role of sacrifice in changing your habits. Rather than forcing yourself into a substitute, trying all the while to ignore the call of the familiar, try physically distancing yourself from the usual suspects. Give yourself permission to spend the time how you like, so long as you’re doing something new or different. You might be surprised at the sense of freedom this creates!
Have a blessed, wonderful day!
Dr. Alex Loyd
