“He's boring” is one of the most derogatory comments you can make about a person or a movie. This is the final nail in the lid: don’t even go near it! The frantic pace of life and advice on time management increase the feeling of guilt: we are embarrassed to be bored, we try with all our might to “live life to the fullest” and do not understand why it remains empty. Psychologist and author of the Cultural Therapy project Nadezhda Zheleznyak explains why boredom is a bottomless well and how to start drawing inspiration from it.
Boredom is an inactive state of mind; the languor of inaction.
Vladimir Dahl's Dictionary
Boredom is the key to motivation
Remember the feeling when you are traveling on a train to Irkutsk, looking through a dusty window into the distance, and there are forests and forests. Or, for example, you accidentally wandered into an arthouse movie at the cinema, 40 minutes have already passed, all this time the character has been smoking, wiggling his mustache, and it’s awkward to leave. Or he came to visit, and the owner began to show photos from his vacation. All such situations are associated with boredom.
Scientists believe that in this state a person is not just passively languishing, but also shows a certain activity, which consists in the desire to get rid of discomfort. It is important for such an individual to do at least something just to experience the views of fields and photos from vacation, even if this “something” threatens his health.
Science magazine described experiments in which participants had to sit in a room for a quarter of an hour and do nothing. That is, indulging in reflection, plunging into dreams, sighing about the past - all this was not forbidden. However, instead of fantasies, the experimental subjects preferred to treat themselves to weak electrical discharges, which brought at least some variety.
There are other studies that show that, trying to escape monotony, people begin to do strange things - eat candy or hurt themselves, and with equal zeal. Scientists look to the very essence: the more bored a person is, the more novelty he needs, even if what is happening itself is not for everyone - like a masochist, for example. Here, of course, a lot of not entirely scientific conclusions arise about the fate of our country, where it’s been winter for nine months, there’s nothing to do, you’ve ridden three hundred miles, and the landscape is still the same... But let’s not talk about sad things.
If you don’t have a stun gun and chocolates at hand, something stronger can come to the rescue: nicotine, alcohol and drugs.
In an American study fifteen years ago, bored teenagers did not choose Pepsi at all - and they can be understood. Actually, adults do the same thing when they find themselves at a boring party: they are simply trying to somehow refresh what is happening, to gain impressions. They pick up and pick up and sort through. Thus, a dull event turns into a fun one. Although not always.
Here the parents of those same teenagers will agree with the scientists: boredom is not a lack of motivation, but rather an excess of it. Even when our mother or inner voice tells us: “Stop! Do not do that! Put the glass of sweets back!” - we refuse. The boredom is unbearable!
Happiness inflation
Here we are trying a kiss on the lips for the first time - and ten years later it turns into automatism. For the first time we get behind the wheel with sweaty palms - as time passes, the road becomes a routine. A kind of inflation of happiness.
But the existential boredom that is constantly present within us requires new sensations. And we start a new business in the hope that it will give meaning to our lives. We decide to change apartment or country in the hope that everything will be new there. We change partners or decide to be alone forever in the hope that the new relationship will not become commonplace.
In the film 50 First Dates, the main character suffers from an unusual disorder: she wakes up every day without remembering the previous ones. Adam Sandler's hero conquers her again and again, receiving that very cherished first kiss every day. But can the fiftieth first kiss still be the same first?
Spoiler alert:
Failure in work
Of course, we cannot always diversify our lives with extreme entertainment, doping and watching movies about murder. Sometimes you have to somehow survive without it. For example, at work. A yawning office worker will endlessly drag himself to get coffee from the machine and, looking at his colleagues, lament the lack of a stun gun.
In the book “Flow. “The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, the famous psychologist and happiness researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi draws attention to the following paradox: on the one hand, work (sometimes together with the boss Alexey) sets us tasks that require the manifestation of knowledge and skills, and this automatically makes people strong and satisfied (“ Thank you, Alexey! While I was sculpting the presentation, I felt unprecedented power and might!”). But in free time, no brilliant human abilities are used. That is, following the plot of the series with a lifeless gaze, we should seem to ourselves weak and sad. And this is what culture makes us strive for. After all, rest is great, but work is an annoying necessity, a compulsion. And if you can’t get rid of this in any way, then you need to at least send part of the annual report to the junior manager.
Of course, attempts are being made to break the cultural stereotype - for example, when a beautiful girl takes a photo in front of a printer with a stack of paper and writes on Instagram: “I love my job.” But the fact that she was distracted from her direct responsibilities and spent some time looking for the right angle with document folders, a smartphone and office equipment hints that the work itself (as opposed to posting) is not a particularly exciting process.
Csikszentmihalyi also talks about the same problem - leaving the flow state, simulating activity instead of the activity itself. This may occur due to the task not matching the level of the performer.
The complexity of the work should be such that a person feels that he is able to cope with it - he just needs to push a little and strain. If the task that your boss Alexey rewarded you with (increasing the sales of gingerbread in the Tula region) seems too tough for you, you will not feel any joy from your accomplishments. Anxiety will interfere. And vice versa - when the task is too simple and monotonous (move gingerbread from one container to another), everyone can get bored. Unless, of course, he has a phone at hand to film himself against the backdrop of boxes and baked goods. Ideally, it would be good to imagine that the complexity of your projects is increasing all the time and you are improving accordingly. If moving gingerbreads is boring, try throwing them while jumping over your shoulder.
Psychology believes that a person has every chance to adjust his consciousness in such a way as to enjoy his work.
Dangerous mental anguish
Why is boredom so dangerous? It is not considered to be a simple kind of human mood that arises periodically without threatening our personality. In fact, it is one of the main sources of numerous problems.
Is boredom a feeling or an emotion? This is an emotional state that forces you to constantly look for external stimuli, any activity, in order to get rid of the feeling of discomfort caused by the lack of activity.
And there seems to be nothing wrong with that. However, it is worth understanding that when searching for activities, selectivity completely disappears. A person who is “attacked” by boredom is ready to do any, even the most meaningless, work, just so that the negative feeling disappears. Boredom is an emotion, and not a good one at that.
Boredom and creativity
Once again, scientists prove that nothing is meaningless in the world: gastropods, Stas Mikhailov’s concerts, and boredom - everything has its own purpose. Psychologist Sandi Mann conducted several experiments in which participants first had to copy down numbers from a phone book and then come up with a use for two paper cups. Then read these numbers out loud and again invent ways to use disposable containers.
Mann found that the more you torture people with boring numbers, the more creative they become with cups.
We can't come up with particularly sophisticated ways to incorporate these simple objects into life: “Uh, drink from them? Ok, you can also plant a flower there.” However, earrings, musical instruments, bras for Madonna and other non-trivial things appear after tedious meetings with the phone book. It turns out that amazing insights grow well in the gray soil of boredom and drudgery. How this happens is not completely clear, but there are versions.
For example, looking at the pattern of cracks on the windowsill, we launch our imagination into flight to distant worlds, the brain is rapidly looking for an invigorating stimulus, jumping from contemplation of the window sill into the depths of the subconscious, confused memories and vague associations.
This is how various unexpected connections are created in our heads - for example, between glasses and Madonna's breasts, between the nearest dinner and shrimp, between a rocket launch and a red convertible.
This helpful thought process is described in Manouche Zomorodi's book Bored and Brilliant.
The connection between creativity and boredom doesn't seem so strange if you imagine a world in which everything looks exciting and sparkling: you get goosebumps when you see the strange shape of a puddle, you feel elated when you hear the horn of a bicycle, you get ecstatic when you smell something from a bakery.
If a person feels everything so acutely, then, according to all the laws of the genre, he should fall into prolonged apathetic despondency.
And vice versa - a creative approach as a special vision and feeling of the world matures in a cocoon of boredom. But today there is a much greater chance of being killed with a stun gun than being bored for at least five minutes. The entertainment industry has set out to fill all our free time with joy and pleasure. And the further you go, the more compressed and brighter these joys become. We find ourselves, as Chicksen puts it. It moves with acceleration: a little more - and virtual reality helmets will completely deprive us of the opportunity to send our brains for a walk somewhere in the direction of the subconscious.
Along with this anxiety, new questions arise for science. For example, did those guys who hurt themselves out of boredom do it because of untapped creativity or, conversely, because of an overly creative approach to leisure time?
Correct Methods
So how to get rid of this negative feeling correctly? Some fairly effective methods should be listed, and all you have to do is choose the most suitable cure for boredom.
- Find several goals in life that will push you to develop and improve your skills. Thanks to this, you can improve physical and intellectual parameters, as well as relationships with people. You can make an action plan for the near future so that you know in which direction to move.
- You need to learn how to manage your time correctly. Getting up in the morning, a person should be aware of what he will do during the working day and after it. Planning will again help with this. Weekends don't have to be spent solely on the couch watching a movie or TV show. You can devote your free time to communicating with friends, going to the movies, theaters and other events. You can go to nature or make a list of what to see and read. Don't forget about playing sports. With their help, you can get rid of apathy, and not just boredom.
- An excellent way to get rid of negative feelings is to change your job to one that you will like and bring satisfaction. In such a situation, you will be able to occupy your thoughts not with how to quickly complete the assigned tasks and go home, but with how to do everything efficiently.
- Close people will help you get rid of boredom. We need to communicate more often with friends and relatives, relax together, share thoughts and help each other.
Sleep and blood donation
In old cartoons, bored characters always inserted matches into their eyes, and today Japanese neuroscientists confirm that their actions were justified. Scientists experimented on mice, and at the same time studied the behavior of volunteers and discovered a very tangible connection between boredom and the willingness to fall asleep. There is a special region in the rodent brain that causes the animal to close its eyelids when someone begins to outline their economic program. Clever researchers even managed to control these cells: either deprive the rodents of sleep, or, on the contrary, instantly send them into the arms of Morpheus.
So, it turned out that putting a mouse to sleep when a cute animal of the opposite sex ran into its apartment is much more difficult. A chocolate bar or a toy had the same invigorating effect. There are several conclusions from this: firstly, boredom is a great helper when we need to fall asleep. Secondly, perhaps the invention of drugs that will specifically act on the found brain cells and will help you not doze off either in the conservatory or at a meeting of directors is just around the corner.
Such pills could be given not only to people who need hours of boredom to invent an innovative product or write a book, but also to other comrades - those who simply do not know what to do.
According to research from 2011, green melancholy reveals in us a special thirst for meaning, purposeful and meaningful actions.
“What really matters?” - as if a person who was not allowed into the cinema asks himself. And - what a surprise! - the likelihood that he will engage in prosocial activities seriously increases. Blood donation, charity and volunteering all help a person find meaning and significance and are, to some extent, provoked by a boring pastime. So if there is something incredibly dull in the world, it cannot be ruled out that it actually benefits society.
State of dependency
Agree, this is very similar to addiction, where the role of narcotic substances is information, a certain type of activity. In such a situation, a person will begin to have a strong desire to do something, the satisfaction of which is not capable of bringing any tangible pleasure.
Moreover, it is almost impossible to control your condition. All that can be achieved is to temporarily reduce the feeling of discomfort. And then life will become at least a little brighter.
No one denies that a person needs fresh impressions just as much as a change of place, meeting new people, and entertainment. If this does not happen, then the personality will stop developing. However, all this is good within acceptable limits. And boredom is the very feeling that can make you cross all the boundaries of reason.
