Are You Bored? Hear This: The Human Need for Novelty
If you find yourself bored out of your mind with life, repeating your days with such monotony that you could do it with your eyes closed, this is for you!
I am guilty of getting bored more than your average person. I get bored monthly when my cycle is about to hit! I lose my mind and start daydreaming about van life and moving to Europe because anything has to be better than the life I am currently living. I start searching for adventure and if I can’t find it or don’t realize I am looking, I start causing trouble in my life.
That is the thing— if you don’t catch yourself being bored, you will find yourself sabotaging good things in your life to feel something new. Why? Because novelty is a necessary component of the human experience.
Why is novelty necessary?
Novelty’s definition is original, new, or unusual.
We neeeeeed freshness in our lives the way we need oxygen in our bodies to live. If we do not have novelty after a while, we start to die slow boring deaths. The need for novelty is in my opinion our biological nudge to continue progressing our evolution. If we don’t go after new things, we dont change, we dont evolve, and eventually we actually, literally and physically, die.
Novelty is necessary so we dont die, literally and figuratively.
What to do when you find yourself bored out of your mind?
The beauty of being human is we have creative powers. We are supposed to be creative. That is our whole purpose on earth, to create things and share them with the group. When you find yourself bored enough that it starts getting a bit desperate, DO NOT NUMB IT. Instead, create.
If you need help finding inspiration for what to create, that is what social media and the internet are for. I especifically recommend Pinterest and Youtube for new, inexpensive, fun new ideas. But you can also just go the old school way and go on a walk in your nearest city and see what you find that makes your feel c u r i o u s or lit up!
Sometimes it can be a slight change in routine like taking a different way home after work, or get crazy with your coffee, maybe put some cinnamon in it, but sometimes this boredom is calling you to change bigger parts of your life. Some big shifts can be your relationship, the home you live in, your friends, your job, what you eat, or your hobbies.
The first thing to make sure you find yourself NOT doing when you are bored is anything that puts your life in danger. I don’t just mean literally your physical body, but don’t go changing things radically because most likely you’ll regret it. Instead, go slow and change the little things first to see if you are satiated, if you aren’t, then go for the big things. Only you know when is the right to pull the trigger. But try not lose it all in one go.
Closing up…
Novelty is as necessary as oxygen, I already established that. It is our evolutionary purpose. It helps us be creative and change things up. It pushes us to want more and to actually go do it. If you feel like your life does not have freshness, you need to go get it. Don’t wait for it to come to you. Go get inspired.
Ways to find inspiration:
Set some cool goals
Make new friends
Attent a few different classes
Pick up different genres of books and music than you are used to
Find a new route to the places you go to often
Create something: paint, crochet, write, make digital art, record yourself singing, make a podcast
Volunteer in something you believe in
Move your furniture around: feng shui can be cool!
The idea when you find inspiration is to actually take it and act on it. Don’t just get off the idea, actually do something about it and expand yourself. That is what boredom and novelty are all about. The expansion of who you are as a person. You got this, I believe in you!