It’s Good to Be a Bored Soul, Productively.

When was the last time you were truly bored? I mean really bored. Not the surfing Netflix/browsing youtube, facebook, looking for entertainment type of bored, rather the actually doing absolutely nothing type of bored. Like in the old days, where a bus ride or cab ride meant looking out the window, enjoying the sights and letting your mind wander. Know what I mean? Those of us who do make the time to get out and go for a walk/jog/run, often have music playing in our ears. We take that call (or make one). We may constantly check or respond to messages. Perhaps we should get into the habit of letting our minds wander, notice the scenery and think about life.

How about when we wake up in the morning? Are we enjoying the mood, letting our mind acclimate to the new day, enjoying the endless possibilities the day may bring (at least until we remember that today is a work day ;)), or are we reaching for our phone and allowing Facebook/Whatsapp/Texts or the news to set our mood and dictate what our mind will be preoccupied with through our morning routine.

Experts tell us (and reality shows), that humans were not designed to multitask the way we do. We aren’t being fully productive that way, nor reaching our full potential.

Let’s work on giving what’s in front of us 100% of ourselves. Let’s ‘live in the moment’ and be fully present. Let’s wake up and literally smell the coffee (go ahead, put your nose in it -and out of the phone). Let’s be true to ourselves and set our own mood, form our own opinion, think about our own lives and not constantly live our lives through other peoples lives, whether through social media, the news, or the television. Let’s schedule some ‘me time’ –true ‘me time’ and be a bored soul. Hey, we might actually get in touch and discover a part of ourselves we didn’t know existed. Let’s give our minds some breathing room and our personalities the chance to ‘act themselves’ and let’s live our lives the way we were designed to live them.

I recently downloaded an app to my smartphone, that keeps count of my screen time, as well as how many times I unlock my phone (called ‘Pickups’). It was quite enlightening (and on some days embarrassing) to see how many times a day I picked up my phone and how long I spent on it. C’mon, you know what I mean -when we pick up our phone to answer a text and ‘while I’m in the neighborhood’ check my email and social media… Or when I have a spare minute (or not), feel the urge to check if I’ve missed anything.

Now I find myself wanting to make sure each ‘pickup count’ is worth it. I won’t check my phone randomly, I try not to feel the urgency to respond to each buzz immediately. But most importantly, I am training myself to let the phone work for me and make my life easier, as opposed to being dictated and enslaved by it.

Let us make the resolution on this July 4th to celebrate our freedom, by being truly free and pursuing the happiness that is a real, lasting and fulfilling happiness, with a sense of my own purpose.

Let’s start by scheduling some true ‘Bored Soul’ time and ignite that spark within.