The music of boredom
How music can help make some space in our heads for creative thinking
I can vividly remember one particular afternoon as a kid lying in our backyard, plucking blades of grass and weaving them together, poking my finger in the dirt, staring up at the clouds with my eyes half-closed to see if they’d turn into something more interesting, and generally feeling very, very bored.
It was a week or so before Christmas in the long Australian summer holidays. This was a time that, in the days before Christmas, seemed to stretch into eternity and afterwards was but the blink of an eye.
As a kid, of course, my appreciation for this state of affairs was at zero. But now, looking back, I can appreciate that boredom was quietly, albeit very boringly, doing its job. It was giving my brain the space and the chance to wander, to connect dots that hadn’t been connected before and to daydream.
Neuroscientists have found that when we’re bored or daydreaming, a part of the brain called the default mode network switches on. It’s linked to imagination and creative thinking, and is really your brain’s way of quietly connecting ideas when you’re not even trying.
Because those clouds didn’t turn into sheep and elephants all by themselves, I’ll have you know.
More than one kind of boredom
These days, we’re not bored very often, at least, not in the sense of having absolutely nothing to do. Not when there’s always something within reach to entertain us.
But then, weirdly, boredom doesn’t always come from having nothing to do. Sometimes it comes from having too much to choose from.
A hundred tabs open, playlists full of songs, so many recommendations for what to watch next. This isn’t an absence of stimulation but an overload instead, a more dangerous kind of boredom because we’re so full to the brim, so overwhelmed by the noise, there’s no space for anything else to happen, let alone for our brains to wander and those dots to connect.
And it’s incredibly frustrating.
It leaves me feeling restless, craving something to distract me but unable to choose what that something might be because there is just too much to choose from, too much external noise.
Making a decision when I feel like this is like trying to hear a whisper in a crowded room.
Using music to lead us back to ourselves
When this happens, we need a way to turn down the volume and music can be the perfect vehicle for doing just that.
Put on a song or a piece of music you know well and just listen, really listen.
You don’t have to do anything else but follow the sound like a thread leading you out of that tangle of overstimulation. This quiet focus can be enough to reset your mind and create a little of that space your brain loves so much.
It’s the power of one song to quiet our minds and become the equivalent of staring at the clouds.
For more on all things creativity, visit The Creativity Helm, helping you navigate your creativity step-by-step 💡
Your description of lying in the backyard as a kid, feeling bored, is so vivid and relatable! It really made me think about how rare that pure, open-ended boredom is now. You've hit on something as I sit waiting in a restaurant while on my phone. When do we give space for imagination? the modern "overload boredom." It's so true that when there's too much external noise, there's no room for our own thoughts to surface. I'm going to keep your idea of using music to quiet my soul in mind, it's such a simple yet powerful solution.