The Benefits of Boredom
I’ve just read this great article which I decided to share with you guys in my blog asap, so I postponed my other entries to write this one. It offers a different perspective about boredom and made me think about it in a different way and… well, made me start to appreciate it. (?!?!?!?! I know, surprising, isn’t it….)
The article is taken from Reader’s Digest, February 2009 edition. This edition contains quite a lot of interesting articles, so I recommend you to buy it.
Here we go….
“Boredom’s doldrums were unavoidable, yet also a primordial soup for some of life’s most quintessentially human moments. A long drive home after a frustrating day could force ruminations. A pang of homesickness at the start of a plane ride might put a journey in perspective.
Increasingly, these empty moments are being saturated with productivity, communication and the digital distractions offered by an ever-expanding array of slick mobile devices.
But we are too busy twirling through the songs on our iPods – while checking email, while changing lanes on the highway – to consider whether we are giving up a good thing? We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling around in a state of restlessness is one of life’s greatest luxuries - one not available to creatures that spend all their time pursuing mere survival.
To be bored is to stop reacting to the external world, and to explore the internal one. It is in these times of reflection that people often discover something new, whether it is an epiphany about a relationship or a new theory about the way the universe works. Granted, many people emerge from boredom feeling that they have accomplished nothing.
But is accomplishment really the point of life? There is a strong argument that boredom – so often parodied as a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness – is an essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science and even love.”
I have no comment about the article right now, need to ponder on it I guess, maybe in one of my boredom moments. 
What do you think?
fu fu fu, so one argument actually said boredom can be your time privilege to disconnected from your surroundings in a moment which will bring you back with wiser thoughts. This is interesting, but just curious how it works on Homer Simpson
thehe..
“…a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness.. underlies art, literature, philosophy, science and even love.”
– can’t agree more!
errr.. kamu ngomong apa sih mbak?
@tare panda: An interesting perspective, ain’t it? Don’t think it’ll work on Homer though, he’s only got like… what… 10% of his brain left?
@imsuryawan: Hahaha, ngebingungin, ya…. Artikel ini kayanya emang rada philosophical sih, and… dang, Inggris-nya susah….
But basically, yg gw dapet dr artikel ini sih:
* Bosen itu bagian dari sifat dan “privilege” kita sebagai manusia, sesuatu yang harus kita syukurin, bukan sesuatu yang harus kita benci.
* Pada saat kita bosen, itu waktu di mana kita contemplate hal-hal yang lebih personal, and we should do that. Untuk beberapa orang, saat-saat bosen itu malah bisa jadi saat-saat paling kreatif.
* And, last but probably the most important, artikel ini bikin gw “contemplate” ulang tentang arti “accomplishment”. Accomplishment doesn’t always mean career, does it? Most often, we rush our lives just to accomplish something, mostly career-related, but… what’s the point of rushing anyway?
Well, as always… ga ngerti juga gw mo ngomong apa, tapi artikel ini mayan bagus sih, especially untuk orang yg gampang bosen-an and jadi stress2 sendiri, kaya gw. ^_^;