Doing Nothing

Boredom is Good.

These days I'm very busy doing nothing. Are you laughing? No joke. I'm doing absolutely NOTHING and time just flies without me noticing.

So I am busy filtering and sorting my thoughts while I am doing nothing. I am thinking, 'It's 10', 'I'm doing nothing', 'It's hot outside', 'I'm doing nothing', 'TJ must be busy at office', 'It's boring here', 'Oh look at that bird', 'I'm doing nothing', 'Have to finish choreography', 'But I'm doing nothing', 'Let's read something', 'No nothing today', 'What should I do', 'Nothing at all', 'Sleep?', 'Ok. That's doing nothing'. Wooooh. So you say I wasted my time? I say, 'No! It was good.'

Boredom is good. Sometimes it is. And it is totally human to feel dull and restless at times. By allowing ourselves the luxury of doing nothing, we stop reacting to the external world and let our inner selves loose. When doing nothing, we very easily dive into our own thoughts and lose our sense of hearing any external voices, until it becomes a noise when someone's yelling at you.

After emerging from the luxurious boredom, we usually feel that we have accomplished nothing and have frittered away precious time. But the reality is rather contrary. We have gained useful insight and often when doing nothing, we discover something new, perhaps about a relationship, perhaps about a new liking, or perhaps about how the universe works. After all, is material accomplishment really the point of life? Slow down a little.

For once, try parrying the multifarious digital distraction your TV, laptop, cell phone, iPod, Facebook, and the latest Kindle offer. You'll realize how you'd been giving up on something as good as doing nothing.

Check for yourself, because researchers have recognized boredom as 'a legitimate human emotion that can be central to learning and creativity.'

Hence Proved. Boredom is Good.