I'm soooo bored!!! .....How do I fix it?

Have you ever felt like you wanted to just holler? Maybe like this little girl just let all the frustrations out in one giant scream?

I have never experienced "boredom" but I know of many who experience it regularly so I thought maybe I'll make a little enquiry into the term/experience.

According to Wikipedia: "Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do and has no interest in their surroundings".

There are different types of boredom(ennui in french)but it is suggested that all involve engagement with attention.

Or rather the problem of staying interested, attentive, engaged, with what is happening in the moment. The moment as we are experiencing it may feel lack-luster, non-stimulating, slow, or plain blah, blah, blah. Some suggest that boredom can be a response to ones perception of things moving too slowly, not enough stimuli or excitement, not enough "stuff happening".

If a person enjoys the outdoors, physical activities of all sorts, then maybe such a person might perceive a "Mindfulness Seminar" as boring. If a person enjoys to be involved in a myriad of different activities which involves other people, then maybe solitude can be experienced as boring.

Perhaps "French/Italian Impressionist Cinema" is what excites you, then perhaps taking part in a pick-up basketball game strikes you as boring. Cooking may be extremely exciting to you and a yawn to someone else.

Could it be that boredom is "in the mind of the beholder"?

If  boredom is perceived as something to be avoided, an unpleasant emotional state, is it possible that maybe there are other emotions involved? Heidegger suggests that in being bored we are confronted with the meaningless of existence, a sense of nothingness, and this can be experienced with great anxiety. To remedy this anxiety, we do things; after all, we live in an industrious age and there is no shortage of things to do and "i-thingy's" to use. The last time I was travelling on a commuter train I was struck by how many people were using "i-thingy's". Was anybody really on the train, or were most of us somewhere else? Not that there is anything wrong with that........using the i-thingy's I mean, I just couldn't help but reflect on the fact that hundreds of humans being were confined to a small space, yet very few of us communicated or interacted with each other.

Is waiting in line, commuting back and forth to work, sitting in traffic jams, waiting in airports, etc. "dead" time? Time that we need to bring to "life" by doing something?

Being where we are, focusing all our attention on the very moment we are in; listening, seeing, smelling, becoming aware of our experience of the moment, is that not also doing something?

I think it is.......but rather than being(/living) somewhere in the future or the past; being(/living) in the moment we are present in the only "alive" time that is available to us; NOW.

If we often experience feelings of boredom, perhaps it may behove us to ask ourselves: "Why, why do I have these feelings?" When someone tells me they are bored my first question is often to ask: "what would have to happen for you to not be bored anymore?" The most common answer is: "I don't know, something......anything really". In some cases, boredom may the symptom of something more than just lack of attention/something to be occupied with, such as depression, anxiety, feelings of helplessness, addiction issues, etc.etc.

If we find that very little tend to keep our attention or interest, then perhaps we could benefit from speaking to someone about it.

Some suggestions if you're slightly bored: get a cat, they are highly entertaining and very unpredictable, or place a beehive in your work place, it will make it very suspenseful(not really, but just imagine it), or listen to some music you detest, or speak without using the letter "e", or get a big canvas and brush, lotsa paint, blindfold yourself and paint, or only say "happy" things for a week, be Pollyanna so to speak....etc.

If "boring" is in the mind of the beholder, then as a beholder, we have the power of change.

 

“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” 
(G. K. Chesterton)

 

“I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say ‘I’m bored.”
 (Louis CK)

 

(ps; the painting is a watercolour......)