BOREDOM
What is boredom?
Boredom is a common feeling. Feeling unsatisfied by an activity or uninterested in it can lead to boredom. Boredom may occur when you feel
energetic but have nowhere to direct your energy. It may also occur when you
have difficulty focusing on a task.
Boredom
is a common complaint among children and adolescents. In some cases, they may
complain of boredom when they’re uncomfortable dealing with their thoughts or
feelings.
What are the symptoms of boredom?. Boredom is marked by an empty feeling, as well as a sense of frustration with that emptiness. When you’re bored, you may have a limited attention span and lack of interest in what’s happening around you. You may feel apathetic, fatigued, nervous or jittery.
People identify and
experience boredom differently. In some cases, boredom may occur due to:
Inadequate rest or nutrition.
Low levels of mental stimulation.
Lack of choice or control over your daily
activities.
Lack of diversified recreational interests.
Poor perception of time.
You or child may
become bored while engaged in an activity, due to:
Loss of interest.
Confusing instructions.
Fear of making a mistake.
Repetition of the activity for too much time.
Feeling unable to try new approaches to the
activity.
Tips on how to deal with boredom
I don’t believe boredom is caused by a lack of things to do. I don’t think that it is even caused by a lack of things you want to do. Rather I’ve found boredom is usually mislabeled to disguise a different problem. This is why most attempts to stop boredom don’t work because they don’t address the real problem.
Here are some tricks I’ve found to help expose the real culprit
behind a feeling of boredom and get back to your normal self:
Figure out what you
really want to do. Boredom often
masks a problem where you want to do a particular activity but something is
preventing you. This could happen when you want to watch your favorite
television show but the cable is out. When this happens, the first step to
killing boredom is to simply recognize the activity that you truly want to be
doing.
Nuke procrastination. Procrastination can
cause boredom if there aren’t any distractions available to take your mind off
your task. If this is the case, try one of these tips to eliminate
the wait and get busy again.
Get your compass
straight. Boredom can just as easily be caused by a lack of direction.
Spend a few minutes identifying your goals, desires or passions. Sometimes
simply bringing up these can get you motivated again.
Socialize. Get out and meet some friends or make some new friends. Boredom can often disguise a lack of social energy. Even if you can’t see how to meet new people in your area and your friends are busy, go to an online forum that shares one of your interests or pick up a phone.
Put off your boredom. Take a look at your to-do list. Commit to doing just one tiny task on that list before you find something fun to do. Often putting off your boredom for a few minutes by being productive can kick the feeling.
Learn something new. Perhaps what you need is some mental stimulation. Here are some fast things you can do to start learning something new:
Read a book.
Research a topic your
interested in online.
Write a short story.
Pull up photoshop and
practice your artistic skills.
Cut off distractions. Boredom can happen when you are doing a low value task like random internet surfing or watching television shows that don’t interest you. Distractions can be a black hole, sucking you into a prolonged state of disinterest. Turn off the television or computer and start moving around until you find something better to occupy you.
Written by: Divine James
cc: https://www.scotthyoung.com
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