This might seem simple or obvious to some people but a thought popped into my head the other day that changed my perspective on boredom and friendships. I thought I'd share.

I get bored. I realise now that this is just my brains response to being active or stressed a lot of the time. Busy busy busy busy and then when I'm relaxed the boredom sets in. It's actually my mind telling me to relax, not to go do something. It's not a bad thing. When I get bored now I try and sit with it. I try and relax and enjoy whatever moment I'm in if only for a short while.

However I was thinking recently about my friends and how I don't use those friendships the right way. Most of my friends have skills or talents that I could both learn from and share with them.

As an example, among my friends are people who play guitar, draw, surf and make films. I've always just thought about it as things my friends do and if I wanted to do these things I'd have to learn them myself. I'm not sure why, but it never even occurred to me before that I could spend an hour or two with any of these people learning what they know from them and also bonding.

If I add up all the hours of my week and all the friends I have I could be learning a huge amount of new skills and have some amazing experiences all by asking for help.

Not only that but I think that I would be building stronger relationships with these people. Much stronger than if I just went and had a beer and watched a game with them.

Has anybody experienced thinking like this before? Could anybody share some thoughts on why I've never approached friendships in this way before or why I haven't "used" my friends in the right way before?