Wellness Wednesday: Boredom

I don't believe it is our nature to be bored.

This topic came up several weeks ago and I've actually had to think about it for a while to realize where it comes from.

People who were acculturated to a certain way of life often complain of boredom, the absence of external stimuli to keep their minds busy. They depend on technology, on other people's ideas and commercial items to keep them connected. There's an inherent fear attached to being too quiet with our own thoughts and feelings. If we do it too long, we might come to realize something is wrong and that we may need to change the way we're living.

In feeling boredom, I've noticed two things came up for me prominently: anxiety or impatience. Living a way of life in which I am required to view myself as separate from others and nature leads to anxiety and fear, the feeling that we are all really alone in this earthly voyage. When we forfeit interdependence for security and control, we feel alone. Being alone is scary. Wanting that to not be so creates impatience because it is so unsatisfying. Being separate and alone wounds us. To avoid confronting it, we depend on things outside of ourselves to keep us occupied. When there isn't anything instantly available, we complain about being "bored".

Looking at it another way. that you and I are not separate, we are all in this life together and share commonalities, that we are not "apart from" nature and other people, has freed my mind from boredom. I am free to let my mind wander without external input and can be still for quite a long time.

An experiment would be interesting. Try sitting still with your own thoughts for ten minutes. Just ten minutes. Turn off the phone, turn off the TV, don't read a book or look for anything outside of your own thoughts.

What does it feel like? Do you feel antsy? Why?

~*