And for Those Who Wonder About the Nature of Man....

In addition, a third of volunteers cheated by doing things like using a cellphone or listening to music.

This is even more worrying. You were asked to sit for 15 minutes with only your mind as company and you couldn't do that!

The researchers did an experiment to see if the student volunteers would even do an unpleasant task rather than just sit and think.

Good, put them on a manual labour production line and help the economy out.

That's the way I feel about getting a haircut.

I can relate to those people very well now that I am clearly married to one.

Given the choice of sit still and think about something practical and useful Vs chew on a live 240 volt line I can with much dismay say that the odds are my wife would chew the line to avoid the discomfort of doing practical applied thought exercises..

I'll have to think about this for a while...

Buuh!

(Did that scare you?)

I do this daily.

I can report (as a believer in God) that members of our church meet once a month for a communal Quiet Time. We spend a total of 30 minutes in meditation, punctuated by pauses for music or readings. Initially we could only manage 10 minutes at a time, but now we go for 2 x 15 minutes. Once, and once only, we managed the full 30 minutes.
So yes, it is possible but requires practice. It is even possible to teach meditation techniques.

I am never bored, I always think on problems, questions and such. Of course it helps to be bipolar.

Having ADHD is also a distinct advanOMG!!! DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THAT SQUIRRtage.

I was bored once. About 1956 or so, I think. Then I discovered rocking chairs. Now, if I have "nothing to do," I try to catch up on my rocking. I figure I'm some 47.13 years behind, so I do it as often as I can. I watch the birds (see a Bald eagle about twice a week), the snakes, and the butterflies (where, oh where are the Monarchs?), but I try not to think too much.

I think it was Henry Ford that said, "thinking is the hardest work to do, that's why so few do it."

In our educational system we are not being taught to think critically at all. It is only an exercise in spouting back inane facts that have not correlation to one another.

I think I could do the 15 minutes of 'quiet time,' it seems like something any good Engineer could accomplish.

It's called 'gathering one's thoughts,' or' running mental simulations.'

Granted, not having any writing implements to jot the findings down with would be irksome, but not enough to go electrocuting myself out of boredom/frustration.

I'm quite comfortable in my own skull, and love doing mental gymnastics.

They would have to apply the shock to me at the 15 minute mark, just to rouse me out of my reverie.

An idle mind is...well...IDLE.