MindThe Beginner

Inspiration comes from the strangest places these days. I was reading a Terry Pratchett book “A hat full of sky” in wich a creature of sorts stalks a witch. It’s not able to die, not able to forget and not able to be unaware. It’s terrified of this world and just wants to die. It can’t cope with the continuous flood of its senses.

Boredom: the feeling you have when you’d rather be somewhere else than right here, right now.

Two of the greatest skills humans have according to this creature are being able to die, and being able to be bored. So what’s so special about being bored? If you look around you (as I often ask you to) you will notice only a hand full of things of what is actually going on around you. As I’m sitting here in a terminal room at uni I see my screen, hear my keyboard en have the lingering taste of coffee from the sip I just took.

But only after giving it some thought can I hear the terminal fans blowing, other people talking, pages being turned and the person next to me breathing softly while using the scroll wheel on his mouse. With even more effort I can hear more fans, people walking outside this room, the air conditioning and a myriad of noises coming from the corridor I can’t define.

Sensory overload

Imagine you couldn’t block out all those sounds, smells, and other sensory bombardments. How would your day be? Would you be able to concentrate on a single thing? Maybe not, you’d have to block out the rest to do so. But on the other hand. Would you ever be bored? Every second of every day presents you with new things to sense, new things to learn.

You’d go crazy. You would never get any rest because you can’t block out the sounds in your bedroom while you are trying to sleep. Everyone has those nights when they lie away and something in the background -just barely audible- is humming or making some other noise. It drives you crazy and the sound starts to grow into a deafening roar you can’t not hear. But look on the bright side, at least you’re not bored. You’re tired, cranky, and irritated, but not bored. You now have the joy of discovering all kinds of new (and probably irritating) sounds and sights while you’re trying to sleep. You will become aware of every little discomfort in your body and just can’t find a comfortable position.

You have all kinds of feelings, but you are definately not bored.

Shoulder surfing

A quick intermezzo here, the guy sitting next to me tells me he has ADHD and because of this he likes to learn while listening to music. Loud music probably judging by his long hair and band-shirt. The music allows him to block out all those other noises because they just aren’t loud enough to be heard anymore. I can’t imagine learning with loud music but if it works for you, who am I to try and stop you. Rock on!… or something like that.

Back to our blogpost.

What is boredom?

A while back I wrote a bit about being bored while driving. While you might think that taking things very slow is boring it rarely is. What am I saying, taking things slow never is boring. As long as you don’t block out all the senses. Going for a ten meter walk can be an adventure if you let it. Typing a single sentence is a journey across a keyboard. How can you ever be bored with all these things going on around you?

My interpretation of boredom is quite simple: It’s the feeling you have when you’d rather be somewhere else than right here, right now. If you’re bored you’re not experiencing what is going on right now. Because if you were, there is so much to discover and learn from this very moment that you wouldn’t be bored anymore.

Give it a go. The next time you’re bored, know that you are blocking out all kinds of experiences of the present moment and start experiencing them. Time won’t go any faster but moments will no longer pass in a blur. You’ll never get that time back. Time is a one way trip after all. You’d better make every second count. And if you’re bored, your missing out on all kinds of experiences.