1001 VIRTUES OF BEING BORED

If you don't work remotely or are not overwhelmed with childcare, you have probably experienced a strange feeling in the recent weeks, that being one of boredom. A phenomenon all the more confusing as this state, up to now drowned out by your hectic life, had become almost foreign to you—as if it belonged to another time. In our society, obsessed with personal success and the need for productivity, it is indeed frowned upon to do nothing. But, behind these prejudices, the feeling of boredom is actually beneficial in many instances. Lockdown helped us to recognise this: lax phases can be positive as they relieve a mental burden, while encouraging us to experiment. Slowing down our fast-paced existence, allows us to explore other aspects of our personalities and take a more objective view of our lives. According to the philosopher Heidegger, deep boredom is actually a vital experience. It reveals the reality of our being and makes us aware of our existence. In 1929, in What is Metaphysics? he comments that boredom "brings people and things closer together, and yourself with everyone." This is a time of awakening and togetherness.

Lockdown therefore opened a window to serenely renew our relationship with the world, as well as taking care of our families and ourselves. In this respect, parents tend to want to keep their children busy all the time, even overloading them with activities. However, many psychologists argue that boredom should not be completely dismissed as it is thought to play a major role in shaping a child's character. Left to their own devices from time to time, the latter will learn to be more self-sufficient, gain a better understanding of what motivates them and even discover what drives them on a deeper level. They would also have the opportunity to use their imagination and explore their freedom to create, invent and dream...

Some of these benefits may also apply to teens and adults. Many intellectuals have reassessed boredom and shown that it can be beneficial for creativity. Psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire and author of The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom is Good, Sandi Mann is one of the leading figures in research on boredom, a very recent field of study (emerging only in the past twenty years). Through experiments conducted with her colleague Rebekah Cadman, she concluded that people who perform boring tasks for a period of 15 minutes then prove to be much more creative than those who carry out "interesting" ones. Interviewed by Printemps.com, she explains: "Boredom is a search for an unfulfilled neural stimulation. The mind is always active. It will seek stimulation 'internally' if it cannot find it 'externally'. If we are unable to find stimulation, our brain will create it. This is made possible by the wandering of our minds and dreaming." An idea notably corroborated by Jerome Singer. This researcher in psychology from Yale University has demonstrated that daydreaming not only allows us to access forgotten memories, but also to draw meaningful connections between several ideas. Besides, didn't scientists and artists get some of their greatest ideas by being bored? Wasn't it Newton who discovered the theory of gravity when an apple fell on his head while relaxing under a tree?

The philosopher Andreas Elpidorou invites us to overcome feelings of boredom when they arise. In his essay, Life without Boredom would be a Nightmare he describes this feeling as an internal alarm "we should be grateful for - instead of avoiding it like the plague. When it activates, it tells us something." It "motivates us - you might even say pushes us - to seek a different solution."

Inspired by Zen Buddhism and Marcel Duchamp, artist and musician John Cage illustrates this idea with his performance piece, 4′33′′. His concept involves bringing one or more musicians on stage, getting ready to use their instrument and finally not playing a single note for a duration of 4 minutes and 33 seconds, encouraging the spectator, in the emptiness, to listen to the sounds produced in the audience. A progressive and experimental work, inviting us to step sideways, out of the ordinary flow of our lives. John Cage said on the subject: "If something is boring for two minutes, make it last four minutes. If it's still boring, try eight, sixteen or half an hour. At the end, it's no longer boring, it becomes interesting."

Indeed, boredom proves to be able to incite fruitful changes of perspective. Learning to accept this feeling, that one tends to initially dismiss, and reassess by allowing the mind to wander, could even prove beneficial to our well-being. As Denis Grozdanovitch, author of The Difficult Art of Doing Almost Nothing (2009) explains: "we find it difficult to savour the present time. We have been trained since childhood to live in the fast lane and this is alienating. I am not advocating laziness rather, letting go, opposed to this constant sense of urgency that we have, which can be sometimes artificial."

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it can be difficult to allow yourself to take your time. But this situation could change. During lockdown, the FOMO syndrome (Fear of Missing Out) has subsided. For some, it has even been replaced by the opposite, JOMO (Joy of Missing Out, taking pleasure in missing out on something). Now that the temptation to go out has disappeared, everybody can stay at home and take time for themselves without feeling guilty, whether cooking, taking a nap, daydreaming, starting hip-hop yoga, calling a long-lost friend, keeping fit or even finishing a book started months ago... In a world falling into a state of burnout, transient boredom, letting the mind wander and self-care are more highly valued than ever before, and the effect of removing this stigma may well extend beyond this period of lockdown, greatly improving our sense of well-being as we reconnect with ourselves.