The Beauty of Being Bored

In this constantly busy world, today my family shared a lazy, stay-at-home kind of day.  We recently returned from vacation and a thousand things needed my attention at the house.  My husband returned to work, and the kids had to amuse themselves.  Rather than running around town, visiting my sister to go swimming in her pool, hanging out with my friends who have children the same age as mine, me and my three were left to ourselves and I must admit that even though I had tons of laundry to finish, we all became somewhat bored.  Personally, it didn't bother me much.  However, my kids rarely have time to be bored and this seemed like it could become a problem early in the day.

My two boys began arguing with each other shortly after breakfast.  When faced with nothing to do, they start to irritate one another as only a three year old barbarian and his equally barbarous five year old brother can do.  My godsend of a daughter, however, averted catastrophe by getting out the water colors and markers and had everyone start to do crafts.  Crafts later then led to playing with Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs, and then culminated in the making of home videos where the kids playacted for the camera. My kids occupied themselves all day long by coming up with fun things to do on their own.  I was quite proud of their ingenuity and this got me to thinking about how boredom can actually be a very beneficial state to be in once in awhile.

Usually people are too busy to be bored.  In today's constantly moving world, most people are too busy to even think deeply.  Some days it seems as if I am running on autopilot and when I finally get to the point in my day where I have nothing I have to immediately accomplish my brain is too fried to engage in any real creative thought.  Between our jobs, taking care of children and parents, keeping up the house, and doing the million things required of us every day to keep things running smoothly, we are not given any down time.  Down time is necessary for recharging one's mental and physical batteries.  I believe that boredom is also a necessary state for creative thought to grow in.  It is fertilizer for the brain.

When people become bored, the mind wanders, and it is during those times that the brain begins to think of things to do for amusement, education, or improvement.  Having nothing to do allows the mind to come up with ideas that require more effort and attention than the normal person has throughout the day and it really becomes the breeding ground for some fantastically creative thoughts. 

My children really impressed me today with how creative they were, and even better, they impressed themselves.  They discovered again how much they enjoy making art and using their imaginations to create things for themselves.  This is the beauty of being bored.  It is a staging ground for excellent things to be done and to be made.  It is a wonderful place to be for awhile because it allows us to move towards something better, brighter, and more interesting.  Something that we have created on our own.  We tap into our creative, generative selves and this is truly a beautiful, wonderful thing!