Boring is good.
Your best ideas never come from doomscrolling.
Truth is, you need to be bored. And according to a Harvard Business Review study, boredom is essential for brain activity. Consider it a wakeful rest of the mind where daydreaming and self-reflection increases the capacity for memory and more importantly to imagine the future. However, this theory doesn’t sit well with everyone. For most people, being left to your thoughts can bring up raw feelings and uncomfortability. But, that is also the point. Sitting with boredom even for a few minutes can rebuild the muscle that allows you to focus, hone in, look at a problem differently, come up with a better solution.
Think about the busiest day of your week, when it’s non-stop activities, meetings, emails. You can feel accomplished, but not necessarily fulfilled. How could you when your brain is actually running on empty. The busyness of your day consumes all the brain’s muscles without rest and you’re left with timidness and no new ideas.
We’re so used to being entertained not by one format, but now a multitude of things online, on our phones, streaming entertainment. Overstimulation is not productive. When we’ve absorbed too much information, it weakens our attention span. And when we are distracted by too many things, we then miss out on all the little things that matter the most. People assume that focusing on the big picture is what saves the day, but if you think about it, what needs to fill up that big picture idea are the little details.
Boredom is not the same as restless. Restless is the act of defeat that your body goes through and sends that message to your brain to stop the urge to be stimulated. There is a difference when we take a break to lie down, relax and listen to music then when you’re lying in bed tossing and turning, finding ways to fall asleep. The latter is restlessness, because you’re trying to prove to yourself that since you’ve done so much in one day, it’s time to close your eyes and dream until morning. Well, your brain is probably too fried from the day’s overstimulation that it cannot focus and be still. It’s not going to let you fall asleep easily, than if you had allowed yourself to rest during a brief moment in the day like sitting on a park bench and eating your lunch (no phone scrolling). The reason for your restless tossing and turning is due to your dopamines not stabilized, they’re basically bumping into one another up there not understanding what they’re supposed to be doing.
For myself, boredom has constantly led to creativity. I have to write facing the window, whatever the scenery is outside or the sounds, none of it has anything to do with me, but I take it all in. I sit, watch and listen. It looks like boredom to stare out a window, but in fact it is filling me up with so much encouragement and my mind begins to imagine things because of the way a taxi honked its horn or how a woman dropped her bag of fruit on the sidewalk and it began to roll out into the street. I start to imagine my own scenarios.
Some believe that a good life is based on a boring consistency, aka routines. I am at this exact point in life where I’m questioning why I stick to a hard based daily routine. Why am I up at 5am, when it’d be easier to get up at 7am? Somehow I have trained my brain (or watched too many grwm at 6am vlogs) or rather tricked myself into believing that by waking up at 5am or 6am the latest, it grants me extra time for myself. And I love a routine, I know I do better when sticking to one. Within the last month of grappling with this indecision and questioning of my strict routine habits, and researching how boredom is good for you, I made one valuable change.
I still wake up at 5am, but I stay in bed and watch something on tv for 20 minutes. Nothing that would stimulate me or have me thinking, something that I’ve seen a hundred times, usually an episode of Derry Girls where I can recite each line by heart now (sometimes in an Irish accent). I’m not learning anything new, but the dialogue and the speech wakes me up enough and keeps me calm and settled. I am simply enjoying this quiet time. Since I have started doing that, waking up in a bored state of mind and not with a to do list mentality, I’ve found myself more productive come 8am. It’s because I didn’t have to prove anything, I allowed myself to rest and enjoy something peacefully before I started my day.
The thing is success wasn’t built off exciting moments. The lightbulb moment that changes your life came from a moment of being still — and bored.
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5 good things
One of my favorite documentaries is Beautiful Darling (2010) based on the life of Candy Darling, one of Andy Warhol’s Factory superstars and a pioneer for transgender visibility. She even inspired a Lou Reed Song, you probably have heard it, “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”. Beautiful and talented, she died way too young at the age of 29 from cancer lymphoma. Recently learned that actor/writer Hari Nef will be portraying the lead role as well as writing the script.
The Hacks series finale brought me to tears, as expected. This show was A+ each episode with every season. I adore female relationships. If you’re accustomed to reading my short stories, relationships between women of any kind are my trope. And it took me writing on Substack to finally realize that. Inspired by the vulnerability, the hardships, conflict and devotion that women give to each other. As soon as I watched the final episode of Hacks, I immediately began to re-binge The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime), also a good portrayal of women friendships.
The Many Lives of Benjamin Kyle (HBO) is nuts !!!! In this documentary, they follow a John Doe who was discovered in the early 2000’s who claims to suffer from amnesia —- or is he lying? And why is he lying? From the start of episode 1 you are locked in. Comes in 4 episodes and leaves you with a frustrating cliff hanger. Half the time I had to keep reminding myself that this is actually happening in real life and that it’s not a scripted tv drama. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if it will turn out to be a scripted limited series in the future. If you devoured The Jinx (HBO), which is still the best true crime docuseries to date, this comes at a strong second place.
Euphoria. ****spoilers**** I was glad to say a final goodbye to this series that honestly took a weird turn from Petra Collins’ teenage suburbia to many stolen parts from Breaking Bad and the like. I hate-watched every episode, because I needed to know how nepo Levinson meant to end Euphoria’s chapter. There were a few holes that he forgot to patch up (ie; Rosalia, was that simply a pr casting because she came with no storyline), but all in all —- the show is about addiction, hence the title so I appreciated Rue’s ending. It had to be. Also appreciated the flashbacks with Fez, that was important. And I did like the ending with Ali (Coleman Domingo) ending up at the homestead, because it brought it back to the vulnerability of addiction. Perhaps the homestead represented the spiritual recovery that Ali very much needed (and Rue as well, had she lived).
I’m starting to dislike Sandy Liang collaborations since they instantly sell out on the same day of launch. I understand that scarcity only builds more hype, but I really want the mini market tote from the Baggu collab. It had me at the video —- brands, video is what really sells a product faster. For once, I actually clicked the Notify tab, but we’ll see how long it takes for the restock and if I truly still want it. Most likely.
🏳️🌈,
dnamag
This is why I take long walks! taking a break is oddly just the thing to give me more ideas