What do you mean when you say bored?
Casually speaking, it’s just being disinterested in a particular topic, as the topic no longer keeps you hooked and give the reward that your neural circuits might have anticipated.
Functionally, it means that there’s a shift towards the higher goals and demands, be it cognitively or behaviorally.
In short, you are bored when the investment of your interest in an area doesn’t add to your assets by meeting the reward needs.
Brain speaks:
- When boredom sets in, access to your favourite chemical (its paradoxical again) dopamine is low, falls below baseline. Your brain says to you “seek higher goals, no fun here”. That’s why too much familiarity gives no kick.
- Task- positive network shuts down, while default Mode Network (DMN) remains dominant during boredom. This is a great deal! It functions in:
- Integrating memories of oneself
- Moral reasoning
- mind-wandering
- self-reflection
- future planning
- Blooming ground for creativity
How doing nothing helps?
It’s a cognitive fast!
When your body is deprived of food (in fasting state I mean here), you fill with lot of good things, be it autophagy, cathartocytosis, or just religious divinity, it all converges to repair mechanism.
Similarly, when you accept boredom, you will see a shift in your perception. Boredom should be a fasting but not lead to starvation!
Boredom meets at the junction of cognitive homeostasis and allostasis, that aims towards stability and adaption respectively.
Initiated as a homeostatic signal, boredom ends with allostatic transition and behavioural shift.
Rewards from Boredom
- Evolutionary advantage for survival
- Goal recalibration
- Creativity access
- Meaning detection
- Autonomy restoration
- Dopamine system reset
- Future-oriented thinking
What you can do?
- Rest your productivity for a while
- Go on a digital detox
- Avoid false dopamine surges- via gadgets or other activities
- Do nothing for at least 20 mins – do not even think deliberately
- Engage in same inputs- environment and posture
- Allow your discomfort to manifest- maybe restlessness, irritation but don’t surrender to it.
- Let allostatic mode appear- mind wandering, future oriented thoughts, etc
Remember boredom doesn’t mean meditation!
Protocol:
Once daily or alternate days-
- Same time
- Same place
- 30–45 minutes
- Zero stimulation
- No intention except staying awake
Few contraindicated situations are those with organic psychiatric disorders.
Final words:
In an age where information overload keeps everyone engaging, no enough time to consolidate, similar to how overeating only adds on to illness, we need to fast cognitively too!
Written by Dr Shobhitha Tantry B