Afraid of Boredom? Why?

The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes. – Saul Steinberg

People in modern society can not stand three things: pain, bad dreams, and boredom. They will do anything and everything to avoid facing these situations; in fact, most people are almost obsessed to avoid even the slightest discomfort. No harm calling it a pain killer society. This is a direct result of having too much comfort around us; every new gadget makes life a little more comfortable. In the past decade, Internet and cell phones have drastically changed the lifestyle and reduced our mobility to the extent of paralysis, without being medically paralyzed of course.

Boredom is nothing but the experience of a paralysis of our productive powers. – Erich Fromm,The Sane Society

In as much as someone is a pain in my neck, a situation gives me nightmares, or something bores me to death the message is clear: my capacity to handle discomfort is badly limited so please help me. It is another way of saying that as the comforts in my life are increasing my capacity to handle uneasiness is decreasing.

To some extent I can understand why people are afraid of pain – because it is painful – and why bad dreams are problem – because the nightmares can expose them to the tortures of hell and make people scream and run for life – but I never understood why an utterly innocent situation, called boredom, is considered so excruciating that someone had to coin the term “bored to death”. So I began questioning this notion that boredom is a harmful thing. I strongly suspect that it is another conspiracy of the society to give bad publicity to “boredom” just as it has successfully done to “pain” and “bad dreams”.

People in the poor countries are simply too busy fighting for survival to have the luxury of boredom. Most citizens of the rich world are past that phase and have too much time on their hands that how to fill that time is a real problem. Fortunately, arrival of the IT and communication technology has made their task of filling time significantly easier. So they keep themselves constantly busy with cell phones and Internet. In fact, they are often so busy that they can’t tell you what actually they are doing. And of course, it is impolite to ask this question any way!

Sooner than later, the fear of boredom begins to drive them to always keep going, regardless of whether the activity is meaningful or adds any quality to life. This manic desire for action manifests itself in different ways and has given birth to another category of addicts – people addicted to net surfing and social media sites and those who talk endlessly on cell phone.

In The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche explains how a true thinker and a mindless worker view boredom. He says, “They [thinkers] actually require a lot of boredom if their work is to succeed. For thinkers and all sensitive spirits, boredom is that disagreeable ‘windless calm’ of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful winds. They have to bear it and must wait for its effect on them. Precisely this is what lesser natures cannot achieve by any means.”

For intellectuals boredom is the portal to creativity, something like a springboard, or a carving out space in the mind for ideas to enter. For them boredom is the period of time when ideas are consciously or subconsciously hatched into vision. It is also a silent communication from the mind about the hurdles to realize your potentials if you allow yourself to listen.

This is why people sit in meditation so that they can listen to the inner voice that is only perceptible in silence. This is where intuition can manifest and novel ideas are born. Therefore, next time when you have some spare moments stay face to face with the emptiness that is wrongly labeled boredom; it can also be rich in relaxation and freshness.

The following are the words of great master, Osho. He underscores the importance of overcoming boredom which is the biggest hurdle before any meditator.

“Boredom has been used as a technique, it is a device in meditation. In Zen, boredom is used as a device: you are bored to death, and you are not allowed to escape. You are not to go outside, you are not to entertain yourself, you are not to do, you are not to talk, and you are not to read novels and detective stories. No thrill. No possibility to escape anywhere.

What exactly is meditation? Facing boredom is meditation. What does a meditator go on doing? Sitting silently, looking at his own navel, or watching his breathing, do you think he is being entertained by these things? He is utterly bored!

The whole effort in meditation is this: be bored but don’t escape from it; and keep alert, because if you fall asleep you have escaped. Keep alert! Watch it, witness it. If it is there, then it is there. It has to be looked into, to the very core of it.”

Therefore, as long as you don’t develop familiarity with boredom, it will remain a problem for you. The only correct way to handle boredom is to face it and see it as an opportunity for growth.

Is the Fear of Boredom Driving Your Life?