Not because boredom feels good.

It doesn’t.

Boredom is uncomfortable.

Boredom is irritating.

Boredom is the feeling that makes you reach for your phone when the traffic light stays red for 15 seconds too long.

But that’s exactly why you need it.

Because when you are bored, something important happens in your brain.

Your mind stops being occupied by noise.

And a different system switches on.

That’s the part of your brain that comes alive when you have nothing else to think about.

When you forget to take your phone.

When you sit in silence.

When you walk without music.

When you commute without another podcast.

When you are alone with your own thoughts.

And we hate that.

There was an experiment conducted where participants were asked to sit in a room for 15 minutes and do absolutely nothing.

No phone.

No book.

No distraction.

Just sit there.

There was only one thing they could do.

Press a button and give themselves a painful electric shock.

A huge number of people chose the shock.

That is how much we hate being bored.

But boredom is not the problem.

Avoiding boredom is the problem.

Because when your mind wanders, it starts going to the big questions.

What does my life mean?

What am I doing?

What matters?

Why do I feel this way?

Those questions are uncomfortable.

So we avoid them.

We pull out the thing in our pocket with the screen.

At the street corner.

In the lift.

At dinner.

In bed.

At the gym.

Any time life gives us a blank space, we fill it.

And that has a cost.

If every moment of boredom gets killed by your phone, your brain never gets the chance to look for meaning.

And if you stop looking for meaning, life starts to feel empty.

That is the doom loop.

You feel bored.

You reach for your phone.

You avoid the deeper question.

You feel less meaning.

Then you need even more distraction.

And around it goes.

I get it.

I love to fill time with information.

What more can I learn in any moment!

If I am not learning, I am not growing!

But I just need to be more bored.

You don’t want to be bored.

But you need to be bored.

I am trying to find more boredom.

This morning I ran 12 miles.

I normally take my phone and play music.

But today, I came back to the house and posted the phone through the letterbox.

It was blissful.

It is hard, I get it.

Just you, your body, and your thoughts.

But you might be surprised.

Some of your best ideas may come when you finally stop feeding your brain noise.

Reframe boredom as okay, blissful, delightful!

This is where all the great gifts surface from.

And the better you get at being bored, the less bored you become with ordinary life.

You become less bored with your work.

Less bored with your relationships.

Less bored with the people around you.

Less bored with your own life.

Because you are finally paying attention to it.

Have a great week ahead.

Kia kaha & much love,
Chris x