If, however, these pictures get to you now and make you want to click away, I'll argue to go even further, turn off your browser, put away your phone, and disconnect. After all, it's the weekend.
Sure, taking a walk outside without scrolling might seem dull. But you might be surprised where you can end up if you allow your mind to roam free. "Boredom is a symptom, not a condition. In other words, no one is born bored. It arises due to certain conditions," Manhattan-based psychotherapist, speaker, and author Sean Grover told Bored Panda.
"Underneath boredom is always frustration. When frustration is met with passivity, boredom is a natural outcome," Grover, who has 25 years of experience working with patients in group therapy in clinics, schools, and health centers, said.
The psychotherapist said that boredom is often close friends with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. And the best way to cure it is a counterintuitive one—surrender.
"Boredom can trigger enormous creativity when we tune in to the underlying frustration and come up with creative solutions," Grover highlighted. "Many inventions came out of tackling boredom and resolving it."
To illustrate this point, the psychotherapist provided a real-life example. "I work in therapy with a young man who was working from home during the pandemic. He became incredibly bored with his daily life. Through exploring his feelings in therapy, he decided to start playing the piano again."
"He began practicing, and later joined a jazz quartet."
"Now it is one of the most rewarding things in his life. He plays in clubs throughout Manhattan and invites his friends."
As Grover pointed out, that whole thrilling journey started from unpacking boredom and coming up with a creative solution. Something that has become increasingly rare in our loud world.
With stimulation right at our fingertips, our tolerance for being bored has greatly diminished.
In fact, two-thirds of American adults routinely look at their phones even when they're not making a sound.
In one study, published in the Academy of Management Discoveries, researchers lulled a group into boredom by instructing them to sort beans by color while they gave another group a far more interesting craft to do. Afterward, each group was directed to come up with good excuses for tardiness. The bored group bested their counterparts on both the number and creativity of ideas, as evaluated by objective outside judges.
