What Is The Bloody Point of Boredom???

a reply to: nonspecific

Hmmmm. *genuinely puzzled

As an older man I can sort of manage a few things at once, but I know I can't actually properly concentrate on either of them unless I focus. I wonder if perhaps your say 25 or under and have grown up more in the 'connected world' that's made you this way?

Unless of course you say you're multitasking, but in fact this is what's happening?


The focus of this thread has had an awfully weird turn, sorry bout that heff!

a reply to: Jomina

My soul just curled up inside of myself and died just a little bit. You should take up horror writing. To my kind, that was more terrifying than 28 days later.

a reply to: nonspecific

My thoughts are that boredom is a response controlled by the brain, and the brain is too complicated to understand. I also think that there are different types or levels of boredom.

Over-stimulation is a problem for people nowadays. Our senses are so simultaneously bombarded that there's no possible way the brain can latch onto and be fully stimulated by one task alone. This is why I, too, have had Netflix on the tv, a youtube video coming through the earbud in my ear, FB, BuzzFeed, ATS, school website, Pinterest, and Ravelry all in open browsers, while I'm texting, doing laundry, and cooking dinner. Yet I'll still be complaining that I'm bored.

I'm sure we've all heard kids (and in my case an ADHD hubby) complain that they're bored and there's nothing to do. I think a lot of that stems from having TOO many choices. I think that's why the OP couldn't get his brain to "latch onto" anything interesting while searching the web -- there were simply too many things that could be followed up on or more thoroughly researched. I think the brain was too busy subconsciously filing things away for later and it wasn't in the right mode to grab onto any one subject.

a reply to: Hefficide

Boredom exists to drive us to create something new and soul inspiring. Without boredom we'd all just float along the lazy river of life and none of us would ever make any progress. Well, that's my two cents at least.

a reply to: Hefficide

I guess maybe I am lucky in that respect. I dont get bored. Got plently of things to do and think about and when I am not I am happy day dreaming and stuff..

Boredom is a luxury. It's a state of mind where our primal instincts to survive have been numbed because we have completed the last round of survival, and have nothing to fear or flee from.

Perhaps boredom is something to bask in and splash over your shoulders and be damned glad that you are able to experience it, and be glad that you're not currently ducking and dodging gunfire or being chased by ravenous zombies. That's what I tell myself anyway, on the rare occasion that I feel bored.

........ and no, bacon won't solve it, however boredom with bacon uber-trumps boredom with ham, so you have that going for you.

a reply to: Hefficide

Heff, If I lived closer to you, we'd so hang out and have a blast. There'd be no boredom.

Probably no multiplying cuz im too old to multiply, but we could at least have hours of laughs and stuff like that
Laughing is always great to relieve boredom.
So is nature.
But nature is dying. Snow is enroute. Warm weather is going good bye.
ugh.

ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggh. time to break out the anti SADD light soon. It'll be getting dark at 4pm and staying dark til like 3pm and ugh. winter.

Have I told you I can over exaggerate at times? Still. I hate winter. xD
And now I'm not bored. i'm sad cuz winter. hahaha wow. I'm something else.

a reply to: sarra1833

The joys of winter huh.I should not complain as i live in Australia and winter this year lasted about 34 minutes . However i think the weather/season even time of day can greatly influence your mood . Be interesting to know what the conditions are like where Hefficide is . I know rainy days bore the heck out of me . Its not so much the fact that i cant go outside and do anything but the fact i no longer have the option of doing nothing.Hope that makes sense .

a reply to: hutch622

hutch622,

I live in the Atlanta, Georgia area of the US. Right now it is 65.3 degrees F at 7:08 in the morning. It will probably get close or into the 80's today ( I haven't checked yet, so cannot say for sure ). It is our rainy season here, but the rains are intermittant and usually occur in the evenings.

My region is right smack on the border between the tropical weather ( Florida, the Carribean ) and the cold weather that the Northern part of the US gets. I live just south of Atlanta and it rarely snows here, for example. But when I lived north of Atlanta snow was common - and we are talking maybe 40 miles difference.

Winter will come here but it will be mild. There will likely be a couple of times where the jet stream dips south and we get sleet or snow. But it will be short lived.

Interesting thread Heff. While some are thinking of boredom in our shiny new world, with all manner of things to occupy our minds should we choose. I was thinking back to your question of purpose and of coarse, vikings.

Could it be that the mechanism that we experience as boredom be the very thing that motivated certain individuals to seek adventure. Perhaps to reach out and spread beyond what was the known universe of the time.

Myself, I am rarely bored but living in the woods is an ever changing thing and each season bring it's own unique tasks. It has however been a crazy year and I find myself craving an experience of a very different sort. As some have already mentioned, it's not just a need to fill the time with what I think of as busy work.

Emerging from a major change in my life, I've become a completely different person and my brain and body seem to want to complete the transformation by participating in a completing ritual of sorts. In the past these rituals have been unique to the situation from shaving my head to getting a new tattoo as a reminder of were I came from.

In the last few months I've got it into my head that I want to walk the John Muir (Pacific Crest) trail. Either that or a trip to Sardinia. What I do know is that it is time for a new adventure. I'm not sure how you feel about wandering around in the wilderness for a month or so but you are more than welcome to come along.

Penny

I'm sort of in the same boat as you, Heff. the bar scene is tiring, finding an intriguing hobby is expensive, and staying home is maddening.

Have you looked into stuff like tai chi or meditation? As soon as i get my licence back, i'm going to start taking kendo lessons, not only for exercisr but to improve my discipline and strengthen my mind.

Perhaps a martial art will relieve you?

a reply to: Hefficide
I recant the statement about the weather made earlier by myself.It was cold today . Well Australia cold anyway

you cant learn to truely appreciate the sweet without the sour. wish i came up with that saying, but its from the movie "vanilla sky" and in my opinion, you are experiencing the sour....
....after this when you experience the sweetness, it will be that much better.

When i'm bored it comes from the idea that there is something
i have to do but, for some reason, i'm not doing it. I have to
find that something i don't wanna be doing.It work most of the times.

originally posted by: Hefficide
Here I sit, bored out of my ever loving mind.

Go to a movie, read a book, talk to the barrista at Starbucks. There is no such thing as boredom, only a subconscious refusal to move.

Here are some good books, if you're not sure where to start.

I, Robot by Issac Azimov
Storm Front by Jim Butcher (first of the Harry Dresden novels)
Stonehenge Decoded by Gerald Hawkins
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Point of boredom?

How do you know that boredom exists?

I think boredom is a symptom of a sickness. The sickness is letting your mind and intellectual process define your being (at the moment), and never letting it cease, and return to the peace.

(I didn't mean for that to rhyme, apology)

When you let your mind control you, it seeks 'distractions' constantly, it can't just stay still. You have to calm it down, and let it just exist in peace - that's when the Divine can radiate through you, and there's no way you can be bored.

YOU are never bored, it's just your restless mind, constantly seeking, wanting to process, wanting to satisfy (and of course it can never be satisfied) itself by all kinds of pursuits - intellectual, entertaining, creative, or otherwise.

When you silence your mind, and let peace completely and utterly fill you, there is no boredom. Boredom was never real, it was just you not being in control, but letting your tools control you.

If I were never tired, I would probably never experience boredom. It's only when I am so exhausted that I can't do anything, but can't sleep, either, that I get to that crazy state, where the mind starts lying to me that it's bored. Once I calm it down, and stop its struggling - I tell myself, don't fight, and don't put the mind to fight or struggle - just leave it be, and it'll calm down - there is no boredom.

If you sit on a chair, "looking for things to do", you can get bored. If you are trying to listen to or watch some lecture that is either irrelevant or nonsensical (politicians are a good bet for this), you can feel bored, because your mind gets restless.

Control the mind, and there's no boredom.

Then again, boredom has a function - without it, we would probably still live in caves and other bases, and gather berries for food. But we need not be controlled by it - we can control it easily. If there's no useful or meaningful task for the mind, we can just let it rest. We don't have to let it run circles on neutral with nothing to do.

Jomina, it's not unnatural to have your physical and emotional needs satisfied. The mind just needs to relax at such a time.

It's very productive and useful to have an active mind in the external and creative world, but without relaxation, we will just bring a neurosis to ourselves. Besides, it's a bad idea to let you mind control you, instead of you controlling it. It can lead to very unpleasant consqeuences, that are much worse than boredom could ever be.

In any case, boredom is an illusion, it only happens to the mind. I don't think the soul is ever bored. A good meditation will confirm you of this (though it can take a few months).

You know how if you sit around way too long and you get a bit stir crazy as your limbs feel a bit stiff and need some stretching? That's your body telling you that you need to get off your butt and go do something to get some exercise.

Boredom? That's the mental equivalent of that. It's your brain's way of letting you know it's getting out of shape. You've got to do something mentally stimulating. Either something you haven't practiced in years, or if that doesn't cut it - something completely new.