The Cost of Boredom

Why am I so bored?

I had a thought the other day that has been stuck in my head:

Why do we get so addicted to such boring things?

Think about it: TV, social media, smoking, gossip…

BORING. So utterly mundane and dull. So predictable and cyclical and with no real purpose or outcome behind it. Why do we cling to them so desperately?

Now wait, before you turn away thinking I’m just going to lecture you about self discipline and guilt you out of your vices (and maybe even the only downtime activity you have), please let me share this first -

Horses have vices too. A horse’s vice can range in intensity from simply annoying to incredibly damaging to their health and environment. Such vices include pawing (striking the ground repeatedly with one front hoof), pacing, weaving (swaying back and forth against a wall or fence), biting, kicking walls or other horses, grinding teeth, cribbing (pushing their top teeth against the rail of a fence, arching their neck, and sucking air into their stomach), among many other unhelpful behaviors.

Horses do these things, and some will do them for hours at a time. If it gets bad enough they can destroy fences and stalls, wear down their teeth and hooves to critical levels, and even get stomach ulcers and episodes of colic.

So why the hell do they do this? It’s not fun. It’s not fulfilling. It’s not freeing, or beneficial in any way. If anything, it’s dangerous and horrible. And we stare at them flapping their lips or tossing their heads for extended periods of time and wonder,

“Why don’t you just stop?”

Good question.

The answer?

BOREDOM

There’s literally NOTHING ELSE TO DO.

Take an animal that is roughly 6 feet long, place them in a 12X12 box, then leave them there for roughly 75% of their entire life. They eat here, sleep here, poop here, stand here, stare at the wall here…

Surprisingly, that sounds kind of familiar. You know what the equivalent of that is for people? A bathroom stall. Imagine spending 75% of your entire day in a bathroom stall. That’s 18 hours. 18 in a bathroom stall. I think you would start banging your head against the wall after a while too.

Now before I wax too animal rights activist, I know that this is the reality for most horses because it is the best their owners can provide for them at the time, and I don’t want to shame anyone who cares for their horses in this manner currently. My own horses live in a rather small run with a stall at the moment. I know you’re doing your best.

And my original thought doesn’t have as much to do with horses spiraling into madness under fluorescent lights as it does with humans in the same situation.

It’s safe to assume that in a 24 hour period you get 8 hours of sleep (if the cerebral overlord allows) and 8 hours at work. So minus sleep and a job, you still have 8 hours of consciousness before the cycle starts all over again.

In 8 hours of sleep your body is healing, processing, resting, restoring. Doing everything that you need to wake up and live another day.

In 8 hours of work you complete tasks that are given to you by someone else, and if you’re lucky you get to do something that you enjoy and believe in. You accomplish a lot; enough to be worth the money that comes from it.

But you have a whole other 8 hour cycle in your day that isn’t sleep or work. If you’re anything like me the realization that there is a whole third of your day of free time hits like a brick wall. Do I really have 8 hours to do whatever I want? Let’s take a little time off for eating, cleaning, and other such things. That might take about 4 hours, but that still leaves you 4 hours to do whatever the heck you want. That’s 2 movies. That’s 4 episodes of most shows. That’s more than most entire games of pro football. That’s a damn good trail ride!

So why are you spending those 4 hours pacing, pawing, cribbing, weaving, head shaking, lip flopping…

“Why don’t you just stop?”

Why are you so bored?

Unfortunately, most horses don’t have the choice to jump the fence and find something more fulfilling to do, but the good news is that you do. You have the choice to open the gate and go running from the endless boredom that taxes your soul.

Run headlong into the things that bring you joy. Do you have a book to write? Art to create? Friends to visit? Hikes to enjoy? Video games to conquer?

What is boredom taking away from you? What can you take back from it today?