I hope you like the image I made, I was going for 'cringe millenial' meets 'y2k' meets '70s' meets canva premium. Plus the only photos I had from today were the collection of horrendous selfies I took attempting to get an ID photo for my study exchange. This was one photo amongst a sea of 'look straight in the camera passport style photos'. 

Today I got bored. Waiting for the bus, on the bus, eating my meal, and many times in between. 

My grandma used to tell me that only boring people get bored in response to me whenever I was moaning as a child. The statement led me deep in philosophical thought in my preteen days. Was I boring? This led me to never, ever, under any circumstance admit boredom again. For if I can't entertain myself, how lame must I be? 

Except did you know, it's actually really good for us to be bored? We need boredom in our lives. It activates our 'default network', a region of the brain that kicks in whenever we aren't preoccupying ourselves with other things. The region that wonders, solves problems, thinks creatively and helps us process information. I think.. I'm not a neuroscientist.. but I did read the book 'The Brain at Rest' by Dr Joseph Jebelli, and you should too.

This book completely revolutionised the way I feel about rest and the act of 'doing nothing'. Doing nothing is important. We should not always be switched on and stimulating ourselves. We need those moments in between the busyness to allow our brain to catch its breath. Those moments are the bus journeys, the mealtimes, the queues. 

These are the moments when breakthroughs are had. They're how we allow our imagination to run. Imagination is going to become a rare skill if AI continues the way it is, if we keep acting like it's normal to outsource every single opportunity to ponder to a box inside our pocket. So relearn to imagine, before it's too late.

I can't say I had any breakthroughs in my mind wandering today.. but I did enjoy myself.

So this is your sign to take back your boredom. 

Lots of love, 

Elle