Hello people!
A strange title to start with, but I'm certainly here thinking... bored, I think, and suddenly I think about writing, precisely about the fact that I'm bored. This seems strange too because who gets bored these days? And why?
It always seems to be something bad, something that children who didn't know what else to do complain about, or used to complain about. Have adults lost the ability to be bored? Or do they avoid it at all costs? Being bored denotes disinterest, apathy, or lack of motivation for things, but if we dig a little deeper, it might also be good to be bored for a while. Why not?
It's funny how we always complain about not having time for anything, about wanting to do more things, about having more free time, etc., but when we do, we feel bad. Yes, we feel guilty for being unproductive, because we could be doing something else useful, because we're wasting time. It's hard to stop, to simply stop, if we don't fill that gap with a thousand other things. But perhaps it's also necessary to truly stop for a moment, without driving our always-frenetic minds to new thoughts and other obligations, even if we feel they're more to our liking.
There are those who don't know how to take a little time simply to be and be. To not think, to not listen to anything, and then they immediately look at their phone or turn on loud music. Can't they hear the silence? What's inside that always needs to be covered up by something else?
I'm one of those who complain about having things to do. I'm overwhelmed by busy schedules, having things to do, or having to think about everything there is to do, but suddenly it's summer. The ideal time to stop the maelstrom that exhausts us. Even in the summer, people complicate their lives because they want to do all the things they can't manage to do during the rest of the year, but in the end, the vacation is over and they feel like they need a vacation from vacation. And they return to their routine without having recovered their energy.
Recently, I've read studies that recommend getting bored from time to time. It's a definitely strange but effective way to break that stress cycle, but it's not as easy as it seems. Now in the summer, this year, after several years with a lot of work and things to do, I find myself with a lot of free time to do nothing, and it's felt strange, sometimes even desperate. Ironies of life.
So I decided to reflect on this, on the fact of being bored, and I've realized that it breaks our patterns, and maybe that's a good thing. It's like a meditation in fact. Because it makes us want to return with more strength, because our minds are clearer ad they have emptied and left space for much that will come again, and maybe because we've been able to listen to the silence, gaze at the clouds without haste, notice details, and also appreciate the present in a new way.
We are fortunate to have this time that some would call "dead," but which makes us feel life more vividly, because we walk consciously, looking around and enjoying it, we take advantage of it to do small things that don't require obligation, only interest and tranquility. Or we let ourselves float in the sea, feeling the sun on us, listening to the waves and our breathing in time.
We can breathe more deeply, learn new things we read, relax with series we like, think about whether we want to write in Hive or maybe not... yes, maybe not, and that's okay. We let ourselves flow with our energy; our mind will be animated if it's motivated, and if not, it will rest. There's no more to it; there's no need to despair or get nervous; we have to stop projecting into the future and everything we want to do, each in its own time, and also stop thinking about all that dense past that has already passed. We are here and now, with our minds in this moment, which we may soon miss, but while in this relaxing moment gifted by life, it is really all we have. Let's enjoy it.
