General News
26 April, 2026
Call the Doctor: why learning to think beats boredom
This week, Dr Felix Ritson explores the idea of boredom. He argues the answer lies in changing how we experience the world.
Boredom is sadly a common feature in people's lives, more common still is that many people engage in unhealthy habits as a way to avoid boredom.
Hence I feel it is important for one's health to develop interests.
While there are plenty of exciting hobbies that are interesting, they often aren't readily available.
Sporting events might only happen on weekends, many activities are unaffordable or weather dependent. The ideal way of developing interests is to make life itself more interesting.
Fortunately life is endlessly interesting, and there are plenty of things to think and feel that can fill our world with wonder, without needing to actually be doing anything.
Furthermore, if we are lucky enough, most of us will grow old and spend much of our time not being physically able to do the things we want to.
I often see patients that struggle immensely with boredom when they become unwell or retire.
My ethos is that an important goal in life is to cultivate a way of experiencing the world (as interesting) so that one can enjoy simply sitting on a comfy chair with a cup of tea.
The word philosophy is thoroughly misunderstood.
I worry that many people assume that whatever philosophy is, it is complicated, hard to understand and useless.
And while some philosophy is tricky to get your head around, philosophy is mostly about simple questions we have all asked ourselves at some point in time.
Some philosophy seeks to discuss and try and answer grand existential questions like: what is the meaning of life?
How do I know if I am living morally? What should I do in order to be a good person? Is God real? What happens after I die? How did reality come into being? How do we know if something is real or true? What is time? Do I have a soul?
Some philosophy considers more tangible questions: how should our society be governed? Does modern democracy work well enough? Is our economic system fair?
What drives “capitalism” and “progress”, and what do those words mean? Do we appropriately cater to those with disabilities or at the fringes of our community? At what cost to other services should healthcare be paid for by our taxes?
Some philosophy tackles things of interest that seem neither grand nor practical: What is boredom, and why do we love tea so much?
What makes something funny, and can we trust that psychologists or neuroscientists get it? What is art, and what is “good” art? How does being able to see the stars affect us as a community?
The word philosophy comes from the ancient Greek: “love of wisdom”. Philosophy is not about being clever, or brainy or academic, it is about “wisdom”, whatever that word means.
We all have wisdom, we all have the capacity to acknowledge that we all desire wisdom and we should all allow ourself to lean into the pursuit of it.
There are plenty of books, podcasts, magazines, youtube videos, reels, etc. on philosophy.
Stay away from people that write or talk in ways that are unnecessarily complex and hard to understand (this usually happens because these people don't understand the content themselves but want to appear as if they do).
It was Einstein that said “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.
So please dive into philosophy, wherever you might go looking for it, so as to enhance your time spent enjoying sitting on a comfy chair with a cup of tea.