Apr 2, 2010, 12.00am IST
P V VAIDYANATHAN.
I’m bored. Weve said it so often and weve heard it being said. Why do we get bored? What is the solution to boredom?
Boredom is a state of mind. In that state, nothing appeals to us, nothing excites us, and nothing interests us. Boredom is not something that hits us from the outside; it’s nothing external. It is not like day and night or like the seasons that are inevitable. Boredom is in the mind, though it might be related to the presence or absence of people, events or material elements that are outside the person.
Most often, people get bored when they are weighed down by tasks that they don’t like, or don’t want to do. If that’s the case, one way of avoiding boredom is to learn to say no whenever possible. For example, if you have to go shopping or attend a wedding that you know will bore you with family members or friends, you have the choice to say `no. Sometimes, you may have no choice, and will have to tag along, or will have to suffer the company of people whom you may not like. In such cases, one has no choice, but to grin and bear it, although you still have the option of engaging in some form of thinking, daydreaming, introspection or analysis, which can go on inside your head, even as you are physically present at that place.
The most common reason for boredom is when one does not have anything worthwhile to do. Take up a hobby, call up old friends or relatives, start writing a journal, learn a new art like drawing, painting or music, remember all the things you wanted to do, but could not do due to a genuine lack of time. Also, boredom is often the starting point for inspirational ideas, and many discoveries and inventions have happened when people who are responsible for these had nothing to do, and were in a state of extreme boredom. Make your boredom a rejoicing, a time to think, plan, introspect, and come out with brilliant workable ideas, reconnect with others and with yourself, instead of fretting and fuming, and generally making yourself and those around you miserable, with your continuous lamenting.
Boredom or constantly feeling bored can mean two things. One, you do not know yourself. You don’t know what you like, what you dislike, what makes you tick and what irritates you. For if you really knew yourself, you would also know why you are bored and would also know what would get you out of this boredom. So if you are bored and don’t know why, maybe it is time for some deep introspection and meditation, in an effort to know yourself.
The other reason many of us complain of being bored, and this is especially true of children, is as an attention-seeking measure. We hope that those to who we complain will drop everything and pamper and mollycoddle us, will give us more of their time, and will attend to us.
Like everything, boredom too has its benefits, if you use the time effectively and creatively. Otherwise, you can keep complaining that you are bored, and waste the one and only life that God has given you, in a bored, mundane fashion. Feeling bored is also a choice no one is stopping you from going ahead and doing all those things that could make your life interesting or exciting, except yourself.
(Excerpted from the writers Spirituality Bytes.)
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