During the past week I’ve been on a dopamine fast. As part of this dopamine fast, I’ve eliminated things like social media, digital entertainment, processed foods, etc. As you can probably guess, some of my days have had instances of utter boredom. With that being said, I’m here to tell you something very interesting today; something that has been on my mind for a long time.

BOREDOM IS A GOOD THING!

It’s an absolutely beautiful thing. I believe this principle is helpful even in seduction. Let me tell you a story. Yesterday, as part of my dopamine fast, I had a wonderful day: I wrote two articles, I went to the gym and had a great workout, I spent time with friends outdoors, I played basketball, I fasted and ate healthy, I did some reading, etc. It was a day filled with productivity.

Something very odd and interesting happened around 3 pm:

Around that time, I had already done a lot of the things that I had planned to do for the day. I was exhausted. I did not know what to do. I felt very tempted to pick up my phone and watch videos or scroll through social media. I reached a state of utter boredom, and I had no motivation to read, write or do anything else. I also did not have my car with me, as a family member was using it. I had nothing to do!

What did I do?

I embraced the boredom. I rested on my bed, with my eyes open, struggling with the boredom. But you know what? In retrospect, that experience was a beautiful thing. I allowed my mind to rest and waited until creativity came to me.

There was a second moment of boredom that came later at night:

It was around 9 pm and I felt that same emptiness that I had felt before. I had nothing to do, so again, I simply rested on my bed and allowed creativity to come to me at its own time. And it did! I got a great idea for a project that I might work on, and I got a few amazing ideas for articles that I will write in the near future.

We live in a world where we never give ourselves a rest!

Whenever we get even a tiny sensation of boredom, we drown out our thoughts and creativity and indulge in things like TV, video games, social media, etc.

It sucks!

We never allow ourselves to just sit and be bored. We never allow creativity to come to us. All of us are capable of great creativity. It’s part of what makes us human. But in many cases, in order to be creative, we must first be bored; we must first take a step back from all the artificial dopamine that we are constantly indulging in.

Let me end this article by quoting one of my favorite authors and entrepreneurs, MJ DeMarco:

“You soul will resonate its desires or discontent when faced with quiet or minimal distraction; for example, sleeping, showering, or during a massage. How are you responding to your soul's voice? Is it denied? Ignored? Muzzled with the intense demand of meaningless work? Distracted by a television? Honored?”