Boredom or Electric Shock
Blaise Pascal’s once wrote, “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” If this is true, then a 2014 experiment by Timothy Wilson from the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville could mean we are in deep trouble.
In the experiment, he placed individuals alone in a room for up to 15-minutes. There were no other people, objects or anything to distract them except for a button.
The individuals could either choose to be alone in their thoughts or distract themselves by pushing the button which would provide a painful shock to their body. Shockingly (pun intended), 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict pain rather than sit quietly in a room alone for 15 minutes!
Our desire to constantly distract ourselves seems to be getting worse and worse in today’s world. If a second goes by in which we don’t have something to do, we quickly pick up our phones.
You can use this tendency to your advantage though, as it gives you an opportunity to train your brain to put space between stimulus and response in an uncomfortable situation.
One way to do this is an exercise that Steve Magness writes about in his book, Do Hard Things, called Practice Boredom. Here are the steps he provides…
1. Sit quietly in a room with minimal distractions. Sit with eyes open or closed; it doesn’t matter.
2. You’ll start to feel different sensations, which may then turn into positive or negative thoughts. Sit with them. Don’t focus on them or try to push them away. Just see where your mind jumps to and what you have a tendency to latch on to.
3. If you feel an urge to stop or check your phone, experience it. Remember, the key isn’t resisting. We’re just trying to get your mind to experience the sensations and thoughts and not jumping to freak-out.
4. When you start this exercise, aim for five minutes of practicing boredom. As you adapt, gradually lengthen the exercise so that you can sit quietly for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Try practicing boredom today.
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