jaysonic100

Boredom is an amazing thing, atleast more than you may think.

Giacomo Leopardi said in a letter to his father "Boredom is the most sublime of all human emotions because it expresses the fact that the human spirit, in a certain sense, is greater than the entire universe. Boredom is an expression of a profound despair at not finding anything that can satisfy the soul's boundless needs.". So boredom, isnt as boring as you may think it to be. When you are bored, your brain activtiy lowerS by 5%... But activates other regions in the brain responsible for things such as remembering auto biographicals, considering the thoughts and feelings of others, and making hypotheticals. In Jennifer Schuessler's essay named "Our boredom, our selves" it says " Boredom may itself, be a highly useful human capacity. At least according to some phychologist and neuroscientist who have begun examining it just not as an acomplice to depression and addiction, but as an important source of creativity, well-being and our very sense of self". Boredom lets us think, it could be about things we could do or just ways to be better. It can get us more motivated to do things that we may be putting off like homework, or cleaning. Or to play games like flappy bird, silly games that challenge us. Leo Tolstoy said that boredom is the desire for desires... So boredom is what drives us to move, and challenge ourselves and get us fucused. It keeps us away from an under stimulated brain. If the brain is too unstilmulated long enough, then it would start to make it's own stimulation, hallucinations. Hallucinations can be induced in anybodies mind if there isnt enough stimulation around. In "Boredom: a lively history" by Peter Toohey it says "Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobliezed in the same envirenment; the monotony undermines our dopamine and attentional systems crucial to maintaining brain plasticity". People themselves can escape boredom and under stimulation by other ways of stimulation around them. The national center on drug abuse has reported that the top 3 risk factors for teenage substanst abuse is too much stress, too much spending money, and too much boredom, and that boredom is the only reliable way of telling if someone is going to stay clean or not. We all are not that bored all the time though, when we wait for someone or something or listen to unengaging speeches much like mine, its not a mood; its an emotion. The brain has thaasophobia, the fear of boredom. Robert Plutchick's wheel of emotion is a great way to think of it. It shows 8 basic emotions extended in order of intensity, it shows boredom as a light version of disgust. Disgust keeps us away from things that are messy stinky and nasty, things that poison us. So boredom being a light version of disgust isnt keeping us away from poisoness things, but from an inactive brain. Micheal Stevens of Vsause on youtube says "Our brain NEEDS stimulation in order to be healthy, but not too much that its over wheelmed but a perfect balance unique to each individual, underwhich they can preform optomaly with energised focus what psychologist call "flow" " An interesting example of this is music. Research has shown that the way a song compresses using software can help us predict how enjoyable it will be. Too simple, say a raising scale, and the song doesnt challenge us, it's boring. But too complicated, something like white noise, and the file wont compress very much at all and like-wise, we dont seem to enjoy it. There is a place between where its not too easy but not too difficult to compress, that zone is where we find music to be interesting.