Take advantage of boredom to encourage creativity

Today, we live in a society in which we have normalized being constantly active, constantly doing the odd job.

We have grown up learning that hyperarousal is a good thing and that doing nothing is a sure sign of wasting time. This idea often makes us fall into the trap of being over-busy. be it working, doing housework, meeting friends, going to the gym or planning other types of leisure activities. This is so because recognizing that we do nothing has become a socially little accepted fact.

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The value of boredom

In these busy times, it is difficult to find the formula that allows us to reconcile our lives personal with our professional life, so that day-to-day obligations do not leave room for much time more. It seems that we are not able to leave a space in our day to do nothing, that is, give us time for the dreaded boredom to emerge.

It is possible that if, for example, we imagine ourselves being a single hour without looking at our mobile, television, doing housework or talking on the phone or on whatsapp with other people, the simple idea can already generate discomfort.

The truth is boredom has become an emotion that we have classified as negative and unpleasant. It is for this reason that many of us prefer that we want this unpleasant feeling well away from us.

Still, perhaps we should remember that boredom is a powerful generator of creativity and productivity. In this way, if we allow ourselves to leave room for boredom, we will see how imagination will give rise to ideas that will help us break with our routines and it will allow us to arrive at much deeper reflections.

The tendency to avoid idle hours

We have been in confinement for many days now, and relatively recently, it seems that we are approaching the start of a new normal. Despite the fact that we are already allowed to go out alone, as a couple or with our children for a walk or exercise physical, there are still many hours that we must stay at home for the well-being of both our own and those of the rest.

From the beginning of the state of alarm and after the period of adaptation that implies a change in our daily habits and our routines, many of us already we have established and organized new routines within the house, times for getting up and going to bed, times for meals, looking for a space to do physical exercise, allocating the necessary time to telework... We have tried find a way to cope with a truly exceptional situation that has caught us completely off guard and that has generated a great emotional impact on all of us U.S.

Among all the network of formulas to manage the day to day, we have also looked for different stimuli to entertain us, but still… are we taking advantage of the situation to give space to boredom? Possibly, a large majority of readers will have planned each day so that boredom does not fit in because it implies, especially initially, a certain discomfort. The lack of habits in the art of doing nothing pushes us to look for different distractions to reduce such discomfort.

Perhaps it is interesting to ask ourselves if we can make boredom a challenge for our self-knowledge, to discover those facets of ourselves that we have never had the opportunity to leave before flow.

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The creative potential of imagination

Although it seems that only a lucky few have the great ability to be creative, to invent, to build the unimaginable from a blank piece of paper, the truth is that creativity is part of the human condition. If we remember and go to our memories of when we were little, we will remember the great capacity of imagination that we had.

The moments in which the funniest games and the most bizarre stories arose were precisely in those in which we had nothing to do or nothing to entertain us. It was then that we were able to build a world full of adventures with just one box of shoes, some markers or a sheet or any element that we found wherever we were.

Back in the day when we weren't constantly overstimulated watching TV, connected to social networks, playing the game console or playing with one of the countless Applications… it was our mind that, in a natural and curious way, managed to build a magical world.

And it is easy that our day to day, routines, worries and obligations that we all have have caused that we were moving away without practically realizing this potential that we all have within. Therefore, we invite you to take a turn in confinement and take the opportunity to train and develop the creativity that we all have.

Let's see what happens when we spend time getting bored and being creative. Let's spend some time on new challenges to help quarantine be more positive for each of us. Let's find a space in the day to "plan" to do nothing and thus be able to make room for that dreaded boredom. The creativity that emerges in that context is surprising.