Why being bored is sometimes very good for your brain

We are all at home, but the strange idea is mainly: this will take a while longer. We will not suddenly celebrate King's Day joyfully, go to a festival, or stand in a pub dancing.

And so boredom sets in. A week at home in quarantine: okay. But until the end of summer, this?

I notice it too. The first days of quarantine you think: wow, nice not to go out for a while. After that you think: what on earth am I going to do today? Can my partner PLEASE be away for an HOUR? Is it really necessary to get out of my pajamas? Scrolling through those apps on my phone again. Boring. I'm bored. But it turns out that's not so bad after all. According to professor of cognitive psychology Stefan van der Stigchel, it's actually good to be bored every now and then. To give your brain a break from all kinds of stimuli. Here's how it is.

As people, we just keep going and going, we plan one trip after another, we are always on the move, with friends, to eat out, out and about. We are busy and we love it. Now none of that is possible and so we are all returning to our basics. Your home. Your family, your own little spot and nothing more. You don't have to do anything. When you're bored, your brain returns to the ‘default brain network’. Your base. You actually have very little that your brain is occupied with, there is no rush, no noise. You start puzzling, playing a game, finally sticking your children's photo album together after 11 months of intending to do so. You experience a different kind of peace thanks to this corona crisis than you do on a regular weekend, when you also don't have to go to work for those two days, for example. Because for now, you don't have to do anything at all – not in terms of going to work, but also not socially. Your brain can recharge. You relax more than you might realize, because you have absolutely nothing scheduled in your agenda. The idling and doing nothing within your own four walls has a purpose, scientists say. You become more creative, more focused, and happier.

Well, according to science, being bored isn't so bad after all. But why does it feel so lonely? I'm not alone at home at all, because I have two children and a husband AND two cats. But still. The idea that we are going to do absolutely nothing for the time being is quite suffocating. Then I read this sentence: ‘You probably miss less than you think.’ And maybe that's true. We miss a lot, we miss all those trips, dinners, outings. But ultimately, being at home isn't so bad. It's your base. And maybe it's good to return to that for a while.