In Defense of Ennui and Embracing Boredom

Here’s a fair warning before you start reading this- this article is not a click-bait to give you 5 ways to be productive or 6 ways to motivate yourself or 7 ways to fill your life with activities you may or may not care about. This, is in fact is an article intending to make a case for just the opposite. This is about inviting joblessness in your life. This is about what Victor Hugo called out as worse than the hell of suffering in ‘Les Miserables’- This is about the hell of boredom. Long story short, this article is every type A personality’s worst nightmare.

Ennui is a beautiful French word that describes the ugliness or angst that arises from boredom and listlessness. And I have had the chance to experience it first hand for some time now, owing to a slew of minor illnesses and a brief professional rut. And I have come to discover an elusive form of productive boredom that comes from this ennui.

Let me begin by throwing in a provocation, do you have any idea how difficult is it to experience absolute boredom these days? With an endless number of entertaining resources at our disposal, it’s virtually impossible to not find something that would interest you, even if mildly. Because the kind of ennui I’m talking about needs you to be switched off from anything you might find remotely engaging (in times of Netflix, Snapchat, BuzzFeed, You Tube Comment Section and the others). It means saying no to personal and digital stimulation we crave with a vengeance that can put smack addicts to shame. This is a deliberate form of boredom that is highly counter-intuitive and superficially meaningless. So why am I still preaching you ask? Because this ennui is the the single most clarity-providing, mind cleansing, self-explorative gift you can give yourself.

The first thing that hits you when you step into the world of ennui is a hot pile of raging discomfort. The type of uneasiness that you feel when you are sitting alone in a restaurant waiting for a friend who’s obviously ’5 minutes away’ and your phone battery dies. The excruciating moments of acknowledging your physical and mental environment because sweet escape is not an option.

Once you realize you are now at the mercy of your own company, mind and personality, there are questions that you are forced to ask yourself that you may or may not have in a long time. One of the crucial facts to know about about boredom, deliberate or not, is that there is something that leads to it. More often than not, we deny ourselves the privilege of actually questioning our status quo but our beautiful minds have a way of reminding us that all’s not well in this professional or personal paradise. And it does so by pushing us towards the itchy feeling we call boredom.  As we finally acknowledge this listlessness, we reach the inflection point of ennui leading to productivity.

This is where the fun begins, because now you are ready to jump in the scary deep side, and on the other side of it will be the beginning of something exciting and sometimes an existential crisis- but mostly exciting.  Some of the amazing things that might happen when you take the leap-

-       Finding Meaning- What gives your life purpose? What’s really important to you? We stop asking ourselves these questions in the daily drudgery of our existence, but an extended period of boredom is perfect to bring focus to your internal self and live more mindfully

-       Goals setting - In the rush to get things done and make every second count, we tend to lose sight of what we want from work, people and life in general. Boredom steers us towards these uncomfortable thoughts we tend to bury in the name of consistent productivity

-       Pacification- Boredom often urges you to address some of your negative emotions. Like therapy, it makes you question your buried emotions and moves you towards resolution- with people or situations.

-       Observation- When was the last time you truly noticed something beautiful outside your smartphone? We are missing out on so much in reality to ‘catch-up’ on the digital world. Look up folks, its not all smog and mirrors.

-       Creativity- This is the most scientifically backed repercussion of boredom. How many times has the inane task of showering has given you some of your best ideas? I can’t even begin to count. Without an external stimulation, the mind wanders in places inside your head that might give you the next big idea for that client pitch meeting or solve a problem you have been slaving at for months. You are welcome!

But hey, if don’t believe me still, try it for yourself. Next time you wait for someone, look around you and take in the details or look inside you and question yourself. Allow yourself the downtime and cut your ‘productive’ self some slack. Recognize ennui for the powerful tool it is, and feed your mind the occasional idleness because unlike popular opinion, nobody dies of boredom. And now excuse me while you munch of these thoughts and I go chase butterflies in my imaginary yard.