Kapybara The Art Collective

God created the world when there was nothing. And humans need ”nothing” to create.

You stare at the blank paper. You follow the water drops racing down a window, merging into tiny streams. You lie on your back in your bedroom and imagine meanings to the shapes of the shadows on the ceiling created by the evening sun. 

If you are a human, you probably recognize one, if not all of these moments. Moments of nothingness. The color grey comes to mind – bland taste. Quiet. These are all things I associate with the king of feelings : boredom. 

But why is it the king of feelings, you ask? Are there not many others that would sooner earn that title? Like happiness? Compassion? What about love? 

It becomes necessary to define the word “feeling” now. The problem with the noble three (happiness, compassion, love) is that I do not see them as feelings in the same sense as boredom. Happiness, for instance, is not a feeling at all  — it is a mindset, be it a cliché or not. This means that it is not a sudden burst, quelled with a change of circumstance, such as the feeling of hunger, which goes away by eating. You can – and should – try to hold onto happiness, even if the initial joyous sensation caused by any good thing has faded.

Often, you have to fight hard to hold onto happiness, too, as the challenges of everyday life tend to do their best to knock positive thoughts out of your head. Feelings, on the other hand, will not stick, no matter how hard you try to hold on to them. They shift, they change, and gradually or instantly morph into something else entirely.

As for compassion and love ,  I certainly hope you will never stop having them for other people. Even when you are feeling angry, scared , or disappointed. These are not actually feelings, either :  they are the light burdens we are asked to carry. They make us serve others. They make us better people.

But boredom — that is a feeling with a capital F! If feelings had colors, grey would definitely be one for boredom. Boredom is not only overpowering, it is also fickle. As soon as the brain finds something to entertain itself with — puff, there goes boredom! It is perhaps the most temperamental of feelings. It strikes like a ninja… and leaves as abruptly as it arrived. 

But while it is there, I encourage you to make full use of it, especially in the current era of chronic overstimulation. Here are three reasons why: 

1. Boredom reminds us of the ways our minds lack

It does not matter if you have access to all the entertainment in the world — everyone will be bored sometimes. I am talking as someone living in one of the busiest cities in the western world (=NYC) with multiple creative projects going on at all times and a subscription to about a zillion streaming services. Somehow, I still often find myself mentally stuck, and nothing feels exciting. It is a tad humiliating every time – after all, I am an artist! Where is my creativity now? Where is my ability to come up with exciting things to do, with all the reasonable resources in the world?

After having talked about some of these feelings of inadequacy with the people close to me, I have received some illuminating comments. One of my loved ones opened my eyes with this deceptively simple idea:

In a world that constantly challenges our peace of mind, we need to learn how to be perfectly still. And doing nothing might be the only way to get there. 

This idea came from someone who was brought up in a home with a strict rest day policy. Every week, there was one day when he was not allowed to do anything at all. And because of this, he learned to calm his busy mind. There was simply too much time to do anything else! All the frustrated energy had to go somewhere, and in his case, it went into telling stories to himself. He created worlds of his own, incredible, detailed, fantastic worlds. He went on journeys the likes of the greatest adventure stories of literary history. And once he was allowed to organize his own time, he soon discovered that he could use the skills he had developed during the moments of boredom in many different situations in his life. 

His ability to stay mentally still would not only allow him to survive quiet moments – he could also calm himself before exciting or stressful situations. He would be able to make the most of rest days, not feeling like he was missing something else. During these years of mandatory calm once a week, he realized it is not only useful for the mind to be able to sit still — it is vital for its ability to preserve itself. 

I believe this  strongly: if we never experience boredom, we can never learn to take care of our mental health. 

2. Boredom is the first step to creativity

When I was a child, I would go to my mother too often and tell her I had nothing to do. She usually would not try to pacify me by offering entertainment of any sort, but would instead say:

”No piirrä vaikka.”*

(Roughly translated: Why don’t you draw or sth?)

I cannot remember how many times I heard those words, certainly up to a point of irritation. But she, being an intelligent woman and artist, understood that I was experiencing something profound which should not be disrupted for her own convenience. And so I would look displeased and complain to her for a while, but eventually, when she would not budge, I would sit down in front of an empty paper and start creating.

And boy, did I create! My mother saved many of my drawings, and if you put them all together, the A4s form a pile several meters high (still in storage at my parents’ place). Sometimes I look through them and see how compelled I was to fight that hollow feeling. I was bored so frequently I became an architect, gardener, city planner, fashion designer, caricature artist, and overall visual (and later also textual) storyteller in the process. Starting at the age of two, when I was first able to hold a pen (and a mouse – Paint was an awesome program!!), drawing would be my way to escape from the gates of the grey world into the colorful fields of whimsy.

To put it another way: God started creating when there was nothing but stillness, and we are made in his image. He needed nothing to create, and we literally need the nothing within boredom to discover our creativity.

3. Boredom leads us to new places 

Ever had a day when everything rolled smoothly from start to finish? You woke up and had your entire day laid out nice and neat. You had a schedule, and everything went according to plan. You had great conversations with interesting people , and  came up with a new way to manage something at your work that had been nagging in the back of your head. You went for a walk, and the weather was great. You saw something delightful that excited you on your way back home. And finally, in the evening, you laid your head down on your pillow and instantly fell asleep, happy and perfectly tired?

Me neither. But let’s imagine that for a moment, shall we? Fantastic. Now, let’s picture another kind of day to compare – a day of ultimate boredom.

You wake up, and you are feeling tired and just emotionally inside out, like a dirty oven mitt with years’ worth of accumulated crumbs someone is trying to clean, to no avail. You get a text from a friend to let you know they had to cancel whatever you had planned for the day. You wander into the kitchen to make a cup of Earl Grey tea (dated package) and sit in front of a winter-dirty window. You stare at the few tea spills that the oilcloth tablecloth will never absorb. In a way, I am like the tea spills, you think to yourself.  You feel detached from the oilcloth fabric of reality, and it feels unlikely you will ever be absorbed.

Which day would you prefer? Most people would probably pick the first one — the day of enjoyment, social interactions, and self-fulfillment. But what about the latter? I know I would go out of my way to never have such a day. Often, the subconscious fear of the empty day hangs very heavy above my head, creating anxiety over the smallest moment of stillness.

However, I tend to forget that the vision of the most boring day in the world is always incomplete. In it, you are staring at the tea spills, positive that absolutely nothing will come after that. In it, you will remain forever a drop of tea, suspended on top of the oilcloth. But just like the perfect-day vision, the boring-day vision is a fallacy. In reality, you will never spend the entire day staring at the tea spills. That will just not happen. And you know why? Not because you are not capable. Good heavens, no. It is because no matter how set in your ways you are, the earth will not stay still with you in that grey moment.

You might think that time stopped when you sat down at the table, but it did not. Something is about to happen. And not because it should, but because it must. 

Maybe the neighbour´s cat decides to jump onto your windowsill the very moment when you swear you have been staring at the tea spills for an hour. First, you get startled and slightly annoyed. And now what?!? Then you suddenly remember how you swore you would finish that book your friend lent you. And why did you think of that just now? Because she likes books, but she also has a cat called Purrlock Holmes, who does not look at all like the neighbour’s cat, but that does not matter. The idea is already in your head. You stand up, and you leave your boredom at the table to finish its tea. 

Or maybe your mind will start to wander on its own as you sit, and you realize you have not called your grandma for two weeks. At first, it might seem like the kind of trouble you are not in the mood for, but you go and fetch the phone anyway. And you will not regret it. In fact, when she picks up, she instantly gets so excited that you called that you forget all about your initial reluctance. And when you hang up, she messages you that recipe you talked about together, and you will feel like going to the store and trying it out. 

Or maybe you get to the level of boredom where you decide to dig up a photo album and start to clean it up, organising photos that have been a mess for years (I call this the final boss level). Looking at one taken on your birthday 22 years ago will make you feel uneasy, both a bit sad and happy at the same time. If that feeling comes, do not try to escape. Sit with that feeling for a bit, just like boredom has taught you to sit with Him.

All these things or something else may happen after boredom. You just have to believe these moments will be there, waiting, and not be afraid. You don´t have to fear the king of feelings. If you let Him, He will guide you to new pastures.

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*After having read this essay, my mother told me she had learned this phrase from her mother. My godmother also told me that her mother used to say the exact same thing to her. It is baffling how much wisdom women pass on to their daughters in simple phrases. These phrases contain entire systems of intuitive early childhood education.

This article was written using only natural stupidity. I hope you get the joke, because I do not want to farm engagement for the real keywords, if I can help it.