Bore your brain to optimise life
Embrace the pause
There’s more to being bored…Allowing your brain to be bored is a way to optimise your life. In our modern day lives we are constantly needing to be flexible and creative in order to; excel in our work, navigate constant change in the world around us, honour our commitments, all the while maintaining some level of healthy eating and exercise. It’s no wonder we find it hard to ‘switch off’ as we make our way down our to-do list. In doing this though, we can deny our brains the boredom necessary to assist in processing what’s happening in our day. Thus thwarting the ability for our brains to integrate our thoughts and lay down memories that enable the creativity needed to problem solve and optimise our days.
Boredom is different to mindfulness, which is paying attention to/being aware of what you are thinking or experiencing. Boredom is sitting on the bus and staring out the window. It’s gardening, folding washing, or going camping with no internet service, TV or dishwasher. In other words it means not listening to a podcast or watching TV while we do a task. Don’t freak out, stay with me. Allowing your brain to be unstimulated for a period of time, ignites a part in our brain (the default mode network) which is involved in all sorts of complex and integrative thinking, explains Mary-Helen Immordino-Yang during an interview on Science Friday (sciencefriday.com). Immordino-Yang explains that daydreaming, which occurs when our brain is allowed to be bored, involves thinking about things that don’t exist and merging memories in order to make a story of how our life is going and how we can optimise it.
Boredom my friends, is the birth place for creativity. How can you allow your brain to be bored? Be strategic in using technology, not mindlessly clicking on Instagram to fill in the pauses in our lives. For example, pauses may be when a computer is loading or thinking, during the commute to work, waiting in line, or the times our dinner date leaves the table to go to the toilet.
In order to optimise your brain decide what you want to use technology for and the time you consciously want to use it. You could switch off technology when you are eating a meal or putting the washing out or going for a run or walk. Why not embrace boredom?! Look forward to those rare moments where you can let yourself totally space out, maybe in the shower or on the bus. As we approach the second half of the year, we know it’s going to be busy; wrapping up projects, school years and letting our hair down with the onslaught of the silly season. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush and forget to do nothing.
We can optimise life and what we want to achieve through boring our brains, allowing them the processing time they need. So work out what you want to use technology for and when you want to use it and switch off and embrace those beautiful pauses in life.
Space out, get bored…go on, I dare you!
