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Make things better by making better things.
Boredom is thought of today as a lack of entertainment. But we are not seeing what the gift it can be.
Initially, the Romans described boredom as “taedium vitae” (weariness of life) and “horror loci” (dread of place). As the years progressed, boredom became shaped by the change of work patterns in the industrial era. Renting our time to an assembly line for money fundamentally changed how we view our time. Because so much of it is leased out to someone else (again, we are not on our time; we are on the bosses), we stress how our time is managed off the clock.
The problem we are having is that we think time should be used efficiently like a scarce market resource, causing more and more stress. Boredom can now be seen as a negative thing when, for thousands of years, having discretionary time was abundant.
Humans don’t have off-and-on switches. As a result, we struggle with the relationship of being on the clock or off it. Sitting around, we can’t help but pick up a phone to fill time; it seems like a better option than nothing. But we are missing an opportunity to discover if we can never sit with our thoughts.
When we leave the room, we eventually fill it with imagination, ideas, conversation, insight, and connection. We can resist the need to fill the space, so much can open up.