Studies done on boredom show that people who are unable to remain attentive get bored easily.  They seem to require frequent, new and different stimuli to keep their minds active and thus avoid feeling bored.

Studies have also shown that people who are not very self-aware and not accurately in touch with their emotions are more prone to boredom.

When we feel bored, we are not really present to where we are and what is happening within us and around us.  This lack of attentiveness can have unhelpful long-term effects.

For instance, over time, we become less and less in touch with our internal and external world and require more and higher intensity stimuli to keep us interested in life and focused on the things we need to do.

However, if we were able to pay more attention to what is going on within us and around us, not necessarily with a judging eye but with the keen eye of sheer observation, the most mundane things can suddenly become the most fascinating things in our world.

This is what people who practice mindfulness meditation frequently experience.  Both the inner world and the outer world become amazingly exciting and intriguing.

They begin to notice that the sky is not just blue or pink but that it holds so many different and constantly changing hues and shapes and forms that it becomes a panorama of movement and colour!

Grass is no longer just green but a palette of many ‘greens’ depending on where and how much light hits it, what length it is, how damp it is, what other plants are growing around it and so on.

Now all this may seem trivial and useless but for the person who suffers from boredom (which can often be a precursor to depression), this ability to be very mindful can be a life-saving skill.

In fact, mindfulness is really about being in ‘the flow’, the natural flow of consciousness, of life.  It allows your natural happiness to flow through unimpeded by feelings of being stuck or resisting the way things are or fearing the way things will be or regretting and obsessing over the way things have been.

Of course there are other ways of overcoming boredom and most people tend to rely on these.  Sports, hobbies of various sorts, social activities and intellectual pursuits are often things that people engage in for a variety of reasons including the desire to avoid or reduce boredom.

The practice of mindfulness and other forms of meditation is, however, something that you can do without any additional resources, anytime and anywhere.

For instance, being mindful of your breathing can open you to the fascinating world of something as mundane as your breath.  Or simply being very mindful of a mundane task such as washing the dishes can help alleviate any boredom or resentment you feel when you have to perform the task.

Instead of eating or reaching for a cigarette, practicing mindfulness meditation can not only help you overcome your unhelpful habit, it will also increase your ability to focus and be attentive, increase your powers of observation, improve your memory (which is closely related to attentiveness) and remove blocks that have collected in your mind and body as a result of feeling stuck, bored or even anxious.

It can also put you in touch with your feelings, allowing you to encounter them in a relaxed and fearless way.  It offers you the experience of noticing how your feelings come and go thus encouraging you not to get fixated on them or to make hasty decisions in order to try and get rid of them.

Before I finish this post, I would like to mention another kind of boredom that mindfulness practice and meditation more generally can help overcome.  It is called ‘existential boredom’.

This boredom is with the world generally.  It is the kind of boredom that a person experiences when they find the world meaningless and their life purposeless.  They have little enthusiasm or passion for anything.  It is the kind of boredom that is most frequently associated with severe depression.

When we fail to see the magnificence of the world, the diversity and intrigue that it holds, when we fail to feel the very pulse of life throbbing, the world can indeed become a cold, lifeless and meaningless place.

The practice of mindfulness and other types of meditation can tune us into the very heartbeat of the world.  It can awaken in us the natural joy and passion that we so long for.

See also Three kinds of Mindfulness Meditation

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Bored?

Distant mirrors, Dimly lit: Leisure

The Book of Boredom

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Click here if you wish to listen to the 3-Step Technique

So you’re going about your usual business, trying to get things done but finding that as the day wears on, your spirit seems to be flagging, your focus is perhaps not as sharp as you need it to be and, all in all, you’re not feeling satisfied with your lot.  Come to think of it, this is not an unfamiliar feeling.

You begin to wonder, and not for the first time, if this is really what you want to be doing.  You feel resentment rising to the surface.  Your life is precious, so why are you spending so much of it feeling resentful, unfulfilled and afraid to make a change?

If you were to die tonight, your mind would spend your last few breaths playing a time-lapse movie of scores of missed opportunities, regrets and failures.  You don’t want to go feeling this way, feeling as if you had wasted your life.  You don’t want to carry this anxiety and failure into your next rebirth.  You don’t want to…

STOP!

You’re spinning in a loop that could easily lead to depression.  You don’t need to stay in it.  You can get out of it instantly and here is a simple 3-step technique you can use:

1. Interrupt your cycle of thoughts by focusing on something in your immediate space.  It could be your breath, the back of your hand, a flower in a vase or the view through a window.  It could be the sound of traffic, the purring of your cat or the movement of your chest as you breath deeply and softly.  It doesn’t really matter what it is as long as you direct your soft focus on just that one thing.

Do not try to think good thoughts or fight the bad ones.  Simply focus on your object of choice and each time you notice your attention has strayed, simply bring it back, gently with a smile.

2. Redirect your attention by thinking of 10 things that you can be grateful for.  I recommend that at least 5 of these are really basic things like your ability to breathe easily, the complete set of fingers and toes that you have, the ability to hear, the ability to see, the ability to walk.  Really fundamental stuff.

3. Reconnect with your natural state of happiness by asking yourself this question:  What is the least effortful thing I can think, say or do right now that will instantly help me feel peaceful and happy?

Really keep your mind open, fresh as a daisy in full bloom and allow the answer to land on you just as sunlight lands on the flower – effortless and complete.  Whatever you choose, do it now.

It may be something as simple as thinking of something or someone, or smiling to yourself or someone else, or bringing your hands together and really tuning into how they feel against each other…beautiful, simple, raw stuff like that…which is so grounding!  So helpful in re-centering you!

That’s all!  Try this any time you feel overwhelmed, underwhelmed or simply wanting to sharpen your focus and regain your concentration.

Let me know how you go, won’t you? :-)

Blessings Lucy

Awakening to Happiness!

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