Boredom

Boredom

“… process autobiographical memory, craft a coherent sense of self, and imagine how others are feeling are all muted… So, the great irony is that the more we demand our brains to attend to being productive, the less our brains are able to grow us as persons in key areas of identity construction and empathy” – Felica Wu Song

Its fascinating to read about the rise of boredom within science and research. Its something that a lot of us born before Gen Z should recognise from a time not too long ago. It’s been completely eradicated from modern life and the effects are there for us to feel.

Reading some of the writers and researchers who are interested in this phenomenon is so great because as you read their findings, you can’t help but feel a sense of resonance. On the rare occasions our minds wander today and are void of stimulation, you feel the hum of your mind putting pieces in place and weaving your racing thoughts together. If this process is given enough time, its like your computer fan speeding up to cool the system down, spinning and whirring, and then suddenly backing off and easing up when the job is done. After an hour of no stimulation, you can feel your body relax and mind rest. But it needs time to race, spin and cool down.

Sometimes we suspect the constant bombardment of stimuli is tiring us out, but its something to start realising how much our ‘down time’ of scrolling, videos and articles is not rest but heaping fatigue on our already tired systems. If in boredom your mind is repairing, processing your experiences, crafting your sense of self and increasing empathy as Felicia Wu Song writes, then we are severely handicapping ourselves by not allowing space for mind wandering. Its like going to the gym every day for months without resting, repeatedly breaking the muscle without time to repair.

And it’s not just general fatigue, its our ability to understand our own experiences, accept and learn from them, thus enabling growth. It’s also stopping us from understanding others, probably a big driver behind the loneliness and disconnection crisis. For Christians this is the space of meeting with God, encounter, and prayer. Remove this, and even if you’re committed, you are probably consuming information, theology, content but not processing it with God, meeting him and being transformed by his presence. You can’t experience love and love others.

The great news is how easy it is to reap the benefits of the reverse. Yes, it’s hard because we’re addicted. But manage to put your phone away and cut stimulation for half an hour and the positives come streaming back. And because we’re in such an overwhelmed and overstimulated state, it feels like genuine relief comes fast once you get over the initial discomfort of the mind racing.

As believers reading about Christians from centuries past it’s easy to think they were super saints, experiencing crazy rich prayer lives and encountering God, but get bored and see how easy it is to begin to pray. They lived in a world permeated with boredom, so they heard God and got to know Him really well. In all those spaces today we’re watching YouTube.

The distractions of our age are a force to be reckoned with, but if you can turn your phone upside down and put it on a table in the next room, you can relieve your brain and encounter God. Seems pretty simple. Harder than it sounds for sure, but simple.