Are You Bored?
Were you bored this July? Well you shouldn’t have been because apparently in the US July is National Anti-Boredom Month. National Anti-Boredom Month was started in the 1980s by Alan Caruba as he wanted people to “stop moping around” because they were bored.
How are you? If you’re in the UK I hope you made it through the heatwave okay – I think I melted a bit but just about coped!
Were you bored this July? Well you shouldn’t have been because apparently in the US July is National Anti-Boredom Month.
National Anti-Boredom Month was started in the 1980s by Alan Caruba as he wanted people to “stop moping around” because they were bored.
I guess back in the 1980s it was quite easy to be bored. In the UK we only just had 4 TV stations, computer games were few and far between as they were so expensive, video rental was also expensive and the shops weren’t widely available yet and of course we couldn’t pick up a mobile phone and endlessly scroll TikTok to while away a few hours.
But, I’d like to ask you this question: Is it bad if you’re bored?
If you think about it, we’ve been conditioned by this “always on 24/7/365” culture that makes us feel like we should always be doing something.
If you’re not at work, you should be working on your side hustle. Not side hustling? You need to expand your network on social media. Not networking? You need to be checking out the latest trends on TikTok…. it’s an endless stream of the need to do something and if we’re not seemingly achieving something then it’s really easy to feel guilty.
I can’t remember the last time I was truly bored – there’s always something to distract whether that’s work, watching the new hit Netflix show, cleaning or cooking – they might not be exciting but it doesn’t make them boring.
So is boredom a bad thing?
No, I don’t think it is.
I’m not talking about the type of boredom that creeps in when you’re doing a repetitive task at work – that’s just super-annoying. I’m talking about feeling like you don’t have anything to do at all, a sort of void of tasklessness if you will.
We all need a little down time and if that means switching your brain off to the point you think “Goodness I’m bored” then I think you’ve been doing the relaxation thing right.
Why don’t you try to get properly bored at least once this week? I reckon that it’s going to be more difficult than you think!
Drop a comment below and let me know how you get on – did you manage to get bored? Did you find it relaxing or stressful? Did you give up and go and do something? Let me know!
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