The Blessing of Boredom

The doctor came into the small room, looking down at my daughter's recent lab work results. He then exclaimed, "Well, her blood work is getting really boring!" I was taken aback for a second, not expecting him to use the word "boring" when talking about my precious little girl. And then I quickly realized that "boring" in this case was a good thing. It meant her results were stable; that they weren't getting worse. "Boring" is usually a word met with negativity. Being bored is not fun. But I am reminded from time to time that boredom is not always a bad thing.

Life has exciting, happy times. But much of our normal day-to-day living is boring. It doesn't really matter what your profession or way of life is; even the most exciting of activities can become routine and boring if you do it often enough. I grew up in the South, where snow was rare. I moved across the country to go to college, in a place where snow was plentiful in the winter months. The first snow day turned me into a five-year-old, squealing and giggling as I rushed outside to play and examine the fascinating, cold, white powder. However, after many winters of snow, it's no longer exciting. It's boring and annoying.

In the weeks and months leading up to my children's births, I was excited about their impending arrivals, but my day-to-day routines of cooking, cleaning, and school were boring. I felt that if my life was different in a number of ways, I would be less bored. If I had a busier social life, if I had more friends, if I traveled more, if I had an impeccably organized house with trendy home decor, I'd have a more full, exciting life, even throughout the daily grind.

Both of my daughters had a hospital stay longer than my own when they were born. During those days, my mind was filled with so much worry and exhaustion, boredom seemed to me to be a luxury. I distinctly remember late one night after spending the day at the hospital at the cribside of our younger daughter, my husband and I were driving home to try and get some sleep. I remember looking up at the dark sky and suddenly remembering what my stresses were just a few weeks earlier: my social life and the way my house looked. It was strange to realize that those things seemed so important to me at the time, but they had not even crossed my mind in the couple weeks since my daughter's birth. It seemed like a lifetime ago that those things mattered to me. All I cared and thought about was my sick baby.

I look back at that time and realize now that boredom can be a blessing, not only because boredom usually means a lack of major crises, but also because boredom leads to reassessment and hones creativity. You can look for things that may be missing in your life. You can add things to enrich your life. During my most recent phase of boredom, I've found ways to add more things into my life that interest me, such as art, writing, dancing, and service. Even very busy people can experience boredom in what they do. There are people who rarely have a free moment but are still bored because what they do is not interesting to them. This calls for some creativity. A while ago, I was very frustrated with the mundanity of endless chores and duties. So, I decided to try hard to be creative and come up with ways to make my routine more interesting. I've worked to find more humor in my life, and I've tried to spice up boring tasks with music, dancing, and other approaches. I came up with "5 Unique Ways to Have Fun Cleaning Up". These aren't huge differences, but a little goes a long way to make things more interesting.

I still get bored, but it's important to remember that boredom isn't always bad! It can be a blessing!