The Mama Judy and Jill Podcast

Episode 19: Embracing Boredom - How Idle Moments Fuel Creative Growth

• Jill Gottenstrater and Judy George • Episode 19

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Ever wondered how embracing boredom can fuel your creativity? Join Mama Judy and myself as we redefine boredom. Instead of filling every moment of the day with busyness, we invite you to embrace those idle moments as golden opportunities to declutter your thoughts and let your imagination fuel your creativity. 

Instead of fearing boredom, let's repurpose it as a catalyst for personal and creative growth! 

We hope you enjoy!

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Speaker 1:

Oh good, you made it. We are so glad you're here. Welcome to the Mama Judy and Jill podcast, an intergenerational chat about life, art and the creative process. I'm your host, jill, and joining me is my wonderful co-host and bonus mom, mama Judy. Let's get started. Hello, welcome back. We are so happy you are here. Mama Judy and I, if you're watching on YouTube, showed up on Zoom together and we are both looking like pumpkin spice latte, like pumpkins. Basically, we are both bringing out the fall colors, aren't we, mama Judy?

Speaker 2:

We are and it just reminds me of all the everybody's had a similar experience where you put something on and you're going somewhere with somebody and they show up in the same colors. And yeah, I thought the same thing, jill, when I was getting ready. I thought, oh gosh, it's fall and I love fall colors. Let me put on this kind of pumpkin brown scarf and there you are, in your sweater of exactly the same color.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and where I am and where we are, it is fall. Some places in the world it's not fall for them, but where we are it is fall. And today I was so cold, I was so chilled this morning that I threw on this huge, big cozy sweater. So, yes, love it. Okay, today, mama Judy and I are going to be talking about the subject of boredom and patience. And before you run, before you think, oh, I don't get bored, or I have enough patience, or I don't have patience, just just clue in, I think we've got some little pearl, or, mama Judy, I know we'll have some pearls of wisdom here for us.

Speaker 2:

So let's get started with this, mama Judy, all right we'll start Jill with the question what do you do when you're bored?

Speaker 1:

Well, I don't think I, especially when it comes to art or maybe other things too, I don't really feel that I get bored.

Speaker 2:

And okay, well, yes, perhaps we'll see. So let me ask you this what is your definition of boredom?

Speaker 1:

My definition would be where you are feeling like you have nothing to do, that you are not being inspired or you just don't have something productive to do. I think that's how I would put boredom and then you kind of have this feeling like I should be doing something.

Speaker 2:

Oh those. You have hit upon three points that I want to touch on, and number one is you feel that you should be doing something, you should be productive. You should be doing, and I'd like to, and that's probably what most people think, and I think for the most part, everybody runs from boredom, because we're so programmed in our culture to be productive and if you work, your boss wants you to be productive. So when you come home you've got that mindset. It's like that hamster on the wheel. You just keep going, and I'd like people to think about their days, their lives, and what do they do when they get bored. If all of a sudden, like you said, jill, you don't feel like you're accomplishing something, you rush off to do something else that will make you feel more productive.

Speaker 2:

I want to be a champion for boredom, and I'm not talking about the kind of boredom that goes on and and lingers, and lingers, but boredom is really kind of a disinterest in what's going on. You can't get stimulated. Oh, nothing, nothing is catching me and I'm just. I'm just here, floundering around and I'm so bored. How many times, especially kids, how many times have you heard that I'm so bored? Let's look at boredom a little differently when we have a life that is filled, whether it's at work or even in our own creativity that we have to keep doing, and doing, and doing. And we like you, for example, if you're bored with one project, you go pick up another one. Every time that we change that, we multitask we're literally wearing our brains out. We're not giving them a chance to recharge, because when you go from one project to another, this to that, you cause neurological synapses in the brain, and the brain is like the body it needs to dump and declutter, and that's what boredom is for, I believe, before you go and eat more.

Speaker 1:

I want to ask you a question, judy. So, and I do want to get back to the decluttering. That is very interesting to to put it in that way. But first, as you were talking, I was thinking, okay, creatively, as an artist. Was you know, one of the last times that you felt bored, like I'm just curious, what does that look like for you? Did it come on? What did you do with it? How do you feel just as an artist? Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

You know I think it's when I've been doing the same thing, almost a repetition, where you get into an autopilot. You can feel unstimulated at that time. You're creating, but maybe it's not really grabbing you, and that's what it feels like to me is that, oh, I'm kind of bored doing this same type of art. So what I do is I have different types of art that I try to do, so that if one particular type of art is kind of stale, let's say, then I can still do art, but I do it for myself in a different medium. But getting back to boredom, remember when you were a kid and you were bored. This is before technology. What did you do?

Speaker 1:

well, the image that came to mind right off the bat is, if I was bored, I would usually go do some sort of pretend play, like I would go set up my mom's ironing board and put her jewelry out and pretend I was a jewelry cleaner, or I would go outside and wander around and end up sitting in a field putting together a daisy chain.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so in other words, you were using your imagination. You were not thinking. Alright, that's one of my points. One of my points is that, in boredom, what we do today is just like you said we run and find something to be more productive or and I'm bad about this too kids. So we scroll through Facebook or Instagram, we look at the cat videos and, I'm sorry, I am a sucker for cat videos. Send all your cat videos Mama Judy's way.

Speaker 2:

No kidding, I just love them, but it's like going down the rabbit hole. That's what we do when we're bored anymore. We grab something to entertain us. What I'd like people to think about is, when you're bored for a little bit, don't go do anything, don't grab anything. Now, I'm not saying that this will be every single time you feel bored or you'll do it for hours on end, but boredom is when the brain can clear itself out. If you're bored and you just kind of sit on the patio and you just sit. We're not talking about meditation, we're just talking about some quiet time that you can sit, not worry about the next project, not worry about what dinner is going to be done, just sit and maybe daydream. Or look at the tree across the street and make figures out of it Again, go out and look at clouds. Give yourself some time to get rid of everything that's going on in the mind. And the reason I think this is so important that we not grab something to entertain us when we're bored is because creativity lurks beneath the surface of boredom.

Speaker 2:

Everybody knows the Harry Potter series. I mean, I don't think there's anybody on the face of the earth that doesn't know. Well, I read a statement one time that that series came out of boredom, jk Rowling's was on a train. She was going to be on the train for four hours, she didn't have anything to do, so she daydreamed out the window and came out with this wonderful character of Harry Potter Potter. Anyway, my point is out of her boredom, out of her daydreaming, her creativity began to surface and ideas came up. How many times have you ever been in the shower and you've had this wonderful aha moment? Oh God you go. That is a great idea, yes, well, when you're in the shower, you're probably not thinking of too much, you're just standing there under the water. So you're in that state, like you can be in boredom, where you're not thinking. You're allowing, and by allowing we get to have things come to the surface that if we grab our cell phone, if I go to the cat videos, I'm going to miss them. Now am I telling you that I'm going to quit looking at cat videos? No, but I'm going to be aware, I'm going to be conscious. And I'll give you another example.

Speaker 2:

For me with the lupus, when I take a nap and I wake up A lot of times there's a lot of pain, because when you're relaxed. Pain is like creativity it comes to the surface, your awareness. So when I get up, I usually take some ibuprofen to knock the inflammation back. Well, I've noticed. I got to thinking what is it I do? I grab my iPad, I go to my word game and I play it. And it dawned on me a short time ago that I was doing exactly the same thing. I was filling time. What I do now is I get up and I just sit for maybe 15, 20 minutes and just like have quiet time. I'm bored. Oh, look at the clouds, because who knows what might come up during that time. So we're all guilty of it and it's so, so easy to grab One piece of technology. But we need to allow things to come out from underneath our brain and that's where creativity lurks.

Speaker 1:

Well. So how is? And I understand it makes sense, but then how is just allowing yourself to be bored different than choosing to spend 15 minutes being present and I'm not talking about meditation, just being present or like. And then does that mean, is being present a state of boredom?

Speaker 2:

Because to me, no they're really kind of together. Being present is a conscious choice. You choose to be present. You are mindful.

Speaker 2:

As Eckhart totally would say, boredom is something that everybody automatically will feel and again, I think it relates back to the more we are stimulated. It's like a drug. We need just more stimulation. So we don't know how to handle the downtime, the boring times, and I think some people actually have confessed to being afraid of boredom because it makes them feel less worthy, because they're not being productive. So this again, jill, is one of those things that you have to become aware of. And I think about and, like I said, I think a lot of maybe too cerebrally about everything in life, but I've realized that I don't even handle boredom like I would like to. So I'm going to make time for a little boredom in my life.

Speaker 2:

Maybe boredom is the wrong word for people, but to just make sure that we are not always reaching for something externally that stimulates us. Yes, because it's the internal or the creativity. We can go external, externally, and get inspired. I'm not saying it's an all or nothing, but I am saying that we're probably out of whack as far as grabbing for something like an iPhone or an iPad to entertain us when we have moments that we see ourselves mindlessly, just like I did with my word game. It wasn't even the thought out process. Oh, I'll sit here and I'll work on my word game until the ibuprofen kicks in. Well, I don't have to do that. That's a mindless Right.

Speaker 2:

There was a wonderful article and it's not related to art. It was in the business magazine on the science of boredom, and they have calculated that young people growing up now, based on the average use of Facebook, will spend two years of their lives on Facebook. Facebook is mindless. Now, anytime I say this about technology, don't think I've been purist and I don't use it. But again, it's just mindless entertainment and my whole point is that the boredom that comes up, don't reach for your technology. Think about it. Oh, maybe next time I wake up and I reach for my word game, I'll go. Oh, wait a minute, look at me, I'm reaching for mindless entertainment. What if I just sat here? What creative ideas might pop up? I'm looking in all these discussions Jill for ways for us to uncover creativity and sometimes filling the brain the cerebral congestion does not help our creativity.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that is powerful. That's a great to choose boredom at times, Because I'm the only guy I pick up my phone and first thing usually in the morning too and just get to doing my word game, my Spanish lesson, all this and stuff. Just saying I'm going to give myself 10 minutes of boredom and see what happens.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, I think we should continue to call it boredom. I was going to say quiet time. I thought, no, let's call it boredom Because boredom has such a bad rep. So let's call it boredom. I'm going to be bored for the next 10 minutes, the next half hour, yes, and I'm just going to sit and when we get done, I'd like to just turn this around to show people the view that I have for the next month as I sit and play with my boredom.

Speaker 1:

One thing we mentioned at the top, before we wrap this up, is the word patience. So how does do you see patience intertwined in this discussion?

Speaker 2:

Well, boredom and patience to me. I was thinking about this. They kind of parallel each other. They kind of lurk on the corners of each other. With boredom, we just talked about how it can uncover creative ideas. Well, part of why we reach for something besides just sitting there is we're very impatient people. So boredom requires some patience. You have to be patient with yourself. To just sit there, some people listening, it may be very easy to spend a half an hour with themselves. For others it might take work and you start small. That's one way that boredom and patience kind of parallel each other.

Speaker 2:

The other thing that I've thought about in patience is in our art. When we're doing our art, because we are so used to being instant gratification, instant stimulation, it can leak over to doing our art, where we don't give into our art fully because we want instant gratification. We don't have the patience, and people may get tired of me giving my examples, but they're the only ones I know about. Please jump in with yours. But I love oil painting but I don't have the patience to let the oil paints dry, and I know that I have tried it. Bless my heart, I've tried it and I just am so ingrained in instant gratification that I choose mediums that I can work with faster. Impatient can interfere with totally developing your artistic endeavors, and that's what I think when I think they both kind of parallel. We need to be bored once in a while and we need to be patient with ourselves and our art.

Speaker 1:

Yes, well, and I love to hear from our audience, who are so great about leaving us comments In different things, and so we would love to hear from you as an audience Number one. We're curious because I would have thought boredom sounds like a bad word before, but I love the idea of Embracing boredom as a good thing and a really good part of a creative's life or Vinny Wins life, for that matter and so I'm just curious what experiences our listeners have had with Boredom kind of how they approach it, how it stops them, or if this is a new way that they want to embrace thinking about boredom as well.

Speaker 2:

I would too, jill I. I Absolutely love it when we get a comment from anybody, so I highly encourage people to share with us All of your thoughts on anything, and if anything comes up in these discussions that you and I have, these Conversations that trigger something that somebody else would like us to pursue, we're happy to hear that too. But I know for me I'm gonna be much more mindful of my use of boredom in my art and in my life.

Speaker 1:

Me too, you you have. You have convinced me this today, mama Judy.

Speaker 2:

I am go go be bored for the rest of.

Speaker 1:

But you mentioned the view too. We got to show the view before we jump off.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So here's the thing when everybody's walking around going okay, mama Judy told me I should be bored. Today I'll loud, please. If any creative thought comes up during your board time, let us know. We would love to hear if your experience Mirrors ours and mirrors what some of the best artists have said, that Boredom plays a part in their creativity. In fact, I believe it was Steve Jobs that said boredom is where everything Exists, and I thought that was something like that. I hope I'm not misquoting again because I don't have it right in front of me, but let me see if I can Hang on everybody.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and if you're if you're only listening to the podcast head on over to YouTube to check out the view mama Judy's about to share. She's an organ right now. Mama Judy, you just described the view for the people that are only listening to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

All right. Well, my boredom place this month is going to be Looking Down the Willamette River. It's a perfect place for me to be bored, to just sit and and allow the ideas to come, and so that's where I will spend my time, in order to allow boredom and quiet time to unclutter my mind and Perhaps bring me some new creative ideas.

Speaker 1:

Amen, we could all use a few more of those. Yes, we can. All right, mama, I love you. I will see you in organ in two weeks.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you will, and everybody. Thank you again for coming along with us on this fun journey.

Speaker 1:

Y'all have a great rest of your week. We'll talk to you next time. Bye.