Boredom was considered a rich person’s disease. Not anymore. From a young child to an old person everyone seems to experience it. How to fight boredom?
Understanding boredom
- Boredom means having nothing to do or being disinterested in anything you must do.
- It is a feeling of being impatient, restless, weary, unoccupied, a lack of interest in the current activity.
- Disinterested in the outside world and disinterested in the inner world of emotions and thoughts when you are alone.
Reasons of boredom
Upbringing: Boredom seems to be embedded in our system. We have been pampered as a child. Likes and dislikes are catered to, in the initially stages. So, we take everything for granted as we grow up. As an adult, you pamper your partners and they pamper you, even organizations pamper with incentives and holidays. We have taken many things for granted.
Approach to Education: We don’t learn for learnings sake. We don’t enjoy learning. We want to get grades, pass exams, and get jobs. You can develop intelligence with education, but quality of life Is compromised, so it magnifies your boredom.
Herd instinct: Most people do what everyone else does. We follow the herd mentality which could be detrimental for you. Do we hear our inner voice? Do we listen to our conscience? Life has become a routine mechanical existence. We are adding years to your life, not life to your years. When you work on yourself you don’t feel bored.
Lack of Self-development: Without working on your thoughts and emotions, there is a greater risk of developing anxiety, depression, addiction to drugs/alcohol, lack of interpersonal skills, drop in productivity at work. You are an infinite potential, and you give in to addictions? No animal is bored… no elephant becomes a drug addict.
Impact of boredom
Bertrand Russel –unless individuals are taught what to do with success, the achievement of it will inevitably lead them to boredom. Even to enjoy success, you need to be taught. With boredom the mind is held hostage and the individual makes himself incapable of enjoying or finding happiness. No animal is bored. Nature has designed it that way. Through boredom you make terrible choices.
How to manage boredom
Earl Nightingale: ” You will experience boredom where there is an absence of a good idea.”
Dylan Thomas: “He who seeks rest finds boredom, he who seeks work finds rest.”
Lewis Holes: “If u don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to achieve things, then u do not have enough goals.”
“Boredom and enthusiasm do not co-exist.”
“Enthusiasm enhances with noble thoughts and higher ideals.”
“Enthusiasm multiplies with noble thoughts.”
The entire entertainment industry is based on our boredom. There are enough wonderful experiences in life! No scope of boredom. There are no uninteresting things, there are only uninterested people. If you kill the boredom with entertainment, the distraction becomes an attraction.
Terry Prachet said, “Human beings make their lives so interesting. In a universe so full of wonders human beings have managed to invent boredom.“
Text by S A Sreedharan
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