The beauty of boredom and how to embrace it

If you’ve ever experienced that feeling of being mind-numbingly bored, you’re not alone – but is this emotion really a bad thing?

During the pandemic, plenty of Australians found themselves feeling a little bored.

Small bouts of boredom are totally normal, especially when you’re locked inside your home for days on end.

But although it’s common, and uncomfortable, boredom is a crucial part of our emotional toolbox, according to psychologist Megan Andriessen.

“Boredom isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Megan says.

“But rather than being bad, it may be a little flag saying something isn’t right, or something needs to change, and it can be a trigger to make us search for something more stimulating.”

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What is boredom?

According to Tristan Berrell, psychology lecturer at Swinburne, boredom is an easy feeling to identify given we all experience it from time to time.

“We all have an intuitive sense of what boredom is,” Tristan says.

“It’s that sense of being disengaged, and there’s also a sense of dissatisfaction with being so disengaged.

“It’s a very personal experience that may be caused by different things for different people, so it really does depend on what the individual is looking for, or what they’re getting out of a situation.”

Being bored is a feeling we seem to experience more intensely when we’re young, according to Megan.

“I would say 100 per cent of people have experienced boredom as a child and went to their parents and complained.

“It is an opportunity for parents to tell kids to go outside, which, in my experience, was a great antidote.”

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The benefits of boredom

While sitting and doing nothing can seem like the worst thing in the world, sometimes it’s essential.

Research shows boredom has creativity-boosting powers, with people able to generate more ideas after carrying out a dull task.

It’s also now widely acknowledged that boredom helps children develop new skills, be creative and gain self-esteem.

Megan says new research suggests boredom can “prime us for social interaction”.

“It could be that boredom helps us to identify how and when we need to engage with new contacts or nurture our current relationships,” she explains.

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Why you need to embrace boredom

You need the opportunity to daydream and enter deep thought – rather than constantly using short term distractions – to reap the benefits of boredom, says Tristan.

“These days, we have so many things we use to distract ourselves when we are bored, and we don’t necessarily then use that moment as a chance of reflection like we otherwise could,” he says.

“Instead of being a bit more mindful about boredom, and that experience of boredom, we tend to jump onto social media or something like that.

“This isn’t all that rewarding in the broader or deeper sense, as it alleviates that feeling of boredom but only in the short term.”

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The problem with too much boredom

While boredom can spark positive outcomes, people who experience prolonged bouts of being bored are at risk of depression, disengagement, and risk taking behaviour.

“What we’ve found is this group aren’t experiencing any major distress, but they don’t seem to have a positive and negative emotionality,” Tristan says.

“They seem to be experiencing everything at a relatively neutral level and have this sort of ambivalence towards life in general and lack a sense of agency.”

He says anyone experiencing long term bouts of boredom should seek help, but otherwise if boredom occurs from time-to-time embrace it, rather than instantly trying to occupy your mind.

Written by Alex White.