Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: March 2, 2025

Issue 148

Hello, Muse Readers!

When was the last time you felt bored? Maybe you were standing in a long line or perhaps you went to lunch with a friend who dominated the conversation for an hour. Most of us grew up with boredom being a negative state of mind, but in our current culture filled with incessant distractions (think iPhones, Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, etc.), mental health researchers have given boredom a makeover—it’s good for us!

Research published in Academy of Management Discoveries found that feeling bored can boost creativity. The researchers had participants engage in boring tasks (like copying numbers from a phone book) before asking them to come up with creative ideas. Those who experienced boredom generated more creative solutions than the participants who hadn’t engaged in a boring activity. When we feel bored, we are also giving our brains a much-needed break. Our constant interaction with “devices” overstimulates our minds, and according to neuroscience, periods of boredom…