How many times in life, whether at work or at home, have you said or thought to yourself, “I’m bored”. I have encountered thousands of individuals in my life who has shot this question in different forms to me, on how to overcome boredom.
For more than a century now, psychologists have been trying to study and understand boredom. They even devised a boredom measuring scale and ultimately passively concluded that boredom happens when a person develops a feeling of lack of purpose in life. One of the most renowned psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud theorized that boredom was the result of repressed emotions. Thousands of psychologists, writers, motivational speakers would have addressed this topic in their typically complex ways, but very few have touched the roots of boredom from the human mind perspective.
Boredom and Chaos are closely associated with each other. When we say we are bored, a kind of mild chaotic situation exists within us. We tend to move away from the boredom creator. When we sit in a class where the professor is happily showering boredom through his lectures, there is an instant conflict between the body and the mind. The body says, let’s leave, and let’s get off from here. But the mind pacifies this urge and tries to convince the body that we are cultured and civilized, so we have to abide by the social protocols. The body is more rustic, more audacious, and wilder. The mind is more plastic, more conditioned. The masks we wear are working exceptionally well. Inside we might feel like suffocating that professor to death, but the masks emanates a sparkling smile on the face and every emotion is hidden behind. Chaos creeps into our life when we lose passion. Chaos cannot appear to a passionate person, I mean a passionate man cannot be bored. Observe people around you, look at their faces, they look tired, dull, bored. That’s coz humanity has lost the divine contact with passion. If you are passionate about things that you do, this word boredom will be archived. But every child, every man, every woman is doing things they are not passionate about. A man who is passionate about music is treating patients in a hospital as a doctor. A child who is passionate about art, is being taught derivatives and integration for him to become an engineer. The whole humanity is in boredom, coz your teachers, your parents, your priests and well wishers all have been making you to chase their passion, their likes, their aspirations. So you are simply trying to mechanically satisfy someone else’s passion. And that’s where the roots of boredom have got strength from. We all are wearing multiple plastic masks of happiness, of contentment, of pride on our faces, but inside, we are all living with a deep regret, a great sorrow for not being able to live our passion. And that is the truth.
Eklavya was one of the greatest archers the earth has ever seen. An Eklavya cannot be bored, coz he is passionate about archery, his life is archery, how can you bore him?? All passionate beings have risen to a higher level of consciousness. A Picasso, A Mozart, A Tansen, A Sachin Tendulkar – They cannot get bored. Their passion for art, for music, for sports reigned supreme. Do things that you are passionate about, and you will experience life, you will experience living. Be passionate about your work, you friends, your family, and your hobbies – anything that you do. Keeping the lamp of passion lit inside you is the challenge. We do get passionate occasionally, everyone becomes passionate at one point of their life, but that’s not the point. The point is the length of your passion, the period of time you keep that fire alive. Look at any relationship, be that friendship or love or marriage. The beginning is terrific, you don’t get bored a single moment in that relationship, but once the relationship is experienced completely, once you have explored everything, boredom creeps into that relationship. Boredom appears from the back door, coz the fire of passion in that relationship dies. Now you don’t find anything new in your friend, your lover, your wife, so you say – I am bored in this relationship. The passion to explore, to feel, to experience has died and hence there is a need of friendship clubs, dating sites, remarrytwice.com and so many nonsense things. But this fresh passion also dies. Then they have to visit another website remarrythrice.com or dating for married people.com and so on.
Boredom only happens to Humans, trees don’t get bored, mountains don’t get bored, animals never get bored. Have you ever seen a bored cow or a bored pigeon?? No, they don’t, infact only Man can get bored. He gets bored because he has a mind, a consciousness, an awareness. Only a sensitive mind can get bored. The sensitive mind is high in consciousness; a great energy of awareness exists within a sensitive human. That energy does not like to remain still or idle. A dull or a mediocre mind never gets bored. The alertness is absent, the awareness is faint, so the mediocre mind simply exists, simply vegetates. It simply accepts whatever is happening and remains non responsive. So the more sensitive you are, the more bored you tend to become. Boredom does not exist in animals, but boredom also does not exist in the higher level of consciousness. You cannot bore a Mahavira or a Buddha or a Lao Tzu. They are above human consciousness. So boredom happens to the ones who are midway. The ones who are slightly above the animal nature. People who continuously drink, party, marry, be a part in friendship clubs etc don’t get bored. Their life is very animal like, non sensitive, without any growth of the consciousness.
Many opine that boredom happens when there is repetitiveness in life. They say life is in repetition. A set routine exists. The same House, the same bed, the same waking time, the same wife, the same office, the same people, the same work load and so on. So we claim that repetitiveness is boring. But the fact is that only a man away from nature can claim that he is bored. Nothing in nature is in repetition. It is the mediocre mind that reports that situations are repetitive. The sun rises everyday, the sun sets everyday, but they never repeat. The sun rise is different everyday, the time is different, the sky is different, and the clouds are different. Everything in nature is without repetition. You find things repetitive coz you carry loads of your past and your eyes report everything from this past experiential filter. Now to add to this problem, we try and bring change in our lives. We buy a new house, a new car, we divorce the old wife, we find a new love affair exciting, but the hardcore truth is that all these new things will also become old as time goes by and the same misery will happen again and again. You see your wife everyday; you have been seeing her for years now, so you don’t see the need to see her closely. But she has been changing everyday, new expressions, new reactions, new moods, so much of newness is available, but the mediocre mind misses this newness. If you close a man's or a woman’s eyes and run their hands on their partners face in a dark room and ask him to identify the face, surely they will fail to identify that face. You have been living with that person for years, but you failed to see those sparkle in the eyes, you never felt it important to touch that face and you missed the opportunity. Remember one thing - Nothing is old, your eyes are old, you eyes fail to recognize the newness. It is conditioned to see life in fixed patterns. Freud was right in a way when he said - boredom is a result of repressed emotions. Boredom is from you, your suppressed emotions; you dead eyes, your dull mind, your whole being that has conditioned its sight in a set pattern. Your expectations from others are fixed, very crude. You reach home and you expect your wife to behave in a fixed pattern. Your husband is expected to react and behave in a fixed way. Where will the newness come from? Your mind is already fixed and you are asking for new. Your readiness for the surprises, for the newness is void. We are not living life; we are living a life of puppets. Our world is a puppet lab, simply confined to fixed expectations.
To live life to the fullest, to say a goodbye to boredom from our lives - simply live more naturally, more truthfully. Drop all those masks; they are a burden we carry. Indulge and experience all your passion, life is too short to be wasted with these masks. Let your true life be lived. Yes, it might be difficult, a little adventurous, but that difficulty will be worth facing, worth experiencing. That difficulty will make you more authentic, more real, more mature, and more aware. You will now be able to look at life through fresh eyes, all newness can be seen, your eyes will crave to explore, to touch, and to feel everything now. Life will be a new discovery, living will become a delight now, an infinite satisfaction becomes your associate now, you rise to a higher level of conscious living and you forget that word BOREDOM for ever.
For more articles on self improvement, follow me at www.mentora.in and Transforming Lives – Unlimited | A journey in search of Individuality
Submitted by : Mathew Thomas ( Mentora Champion) is a passionate Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Educational Coach who has worked with a wide range of clients including multinational organisations, education bodies, professional training providers and individuals.
From India, Mumbai
29For more than a century now, psychologists have been trying to study and understand boredom. They even devised a boredom measuring scale and ultimately passively concluded that boredom happens when a person develops a feeling of lack of purpose in life. One of the most renowned psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud theorized that boredom was the result of repressed emotions. Thousands of psychologists, writers, motivational speakers would have addressed this topic in their typically complex ways, but very few have touched the roots of boredom from the human mind perspective.
Boredom and Chaos are closely associated with each other. When we say we are bored, a kind of mild chaotic situation exists within us. We tend to move away from the boredom creator. When we sit in a class where the professor is happily showering boredom through his lectures, there is an instant conflict between the body and the mind. The body says, let’s leave, and let’s get off from here. But the mind pacifies this urge and tries to convince the body that we are cultured and civilized, so we have to abide by the social protocols. The body is more rustic, more audacious, and wilder. The mind is more plastic, more conditioned. The masks we wear are working exceptionally well. Inside we might feel like suffocating that professor to death, but the masks emanates a sparkling smile on the face and every emotion is hidden behind. Chaos creeps into our life when we lose passion. Chaos cannot appear to a passionate person, I mean a passionate man cannot be bored. Observe people around you, look at their faces, they look tired, dull, bored. That’s coz humanity has lost the divine contact with passion. If you are passionate about things that you do, this word boredom will be archived. But every child, every man, every woman is doing things they are not passionate about. A man who is passionate about music is treating patients in a hospital as a doctor. A child who is passionate about art, is being taught derivatives and integration for him to become an engineer. The whole humanity is in boredom, coz your teachers, your parents, your priests and well wishers all have been making you to chase their passion, their likes, their aspirations. So you are simply trying to mechanically satisfy someone else’s passion. And that’s where the roots of boredom have got strength from. We all are wearing multiple plastic masks of happiness, of contentment, of pride on our faces, but inside, we are all living with a deep regret, a great sorrow for not being able to live our passion. And that is the truth.
Eklavya was one of the greatest archers the earth has ever seen. An Eklavya cannot be bored, coz he is passionate about archery, his life is archery, how can you bore him?? All passionate beings have risen to a higher level of consciousness. A Picasso, A Mozart, A Tansen, A Sachin Tendulkar – They cannot get bored. Their passion for art, for music, for sports reigned supreme. Do things that you are passionate about, and you will experience life, you will experience living. Be passionate about your work, you friends, your family, and your hobbies – anything that you do. Keeping the lamp of passion lit inside you is the challenge. We do get passionate occasionally, everyone becomes passionate at one point of their life, but that’s not the point. The point is the length of your passion, the period of time you keep that fire alive. Look at any relationship, be that friendship or love or marriage. The beginning is terrific, you don’t get bored a single moment in that relationship, but once the relationship is experienced completely, once you have explored everything, boredom creeps into that relationship. Boredom appears from the back door, coz the fire of passion in that relationship dies. Now you don’t find anything new in your friend, your lover, your wife, so you say – I am bored in this relationship. The passion to explore, to feel, to experience has died and hence there is a need of friendship clubs, dating sites, remarrytwice.com and so many nonsense things. But this fresh passion also dies. Then they have to visit another website remarrythrice.com or dating for married people.com and so on.
Boredom only happens to Humans, trees don’t get bored, mountains don’t get bored, animals never get bored. Have you ever seen a bored cow or a bored pigeon?? No, they don’t, infact only Man can get bored. He gets bored because he has a mind, a consciousness, an awareness. Only a sensitive mind can get bored. The sensitive mind is high in consciousness; a great energy of awareness exists within a sensitive human. That energy does not like to remain still or idle. A dull or a mediocre mind never gets bored. The alertness is absent, the awareness is faint, so the mediocre mind simply exists, simply vegetates. It simply accepts whatever is happening and remains non responsive. So the more sensitive you are, the more bored you tend to become. Boredom does not exist in animals, but boredom also does not exist in the higher level of consciousness. You cannot bore a Mahavira or a Buddha or a Lao Tzu. They are above human consciousness. So boredom happens to the ones who are midway. The ones who are slightly above the animal nature. People who continuously drink, party, marry, be a part in friendship clubs etc don’t get bored. Their life is very animal like, non sensitive, without any growth of the consciousness.
Many opine that boredom happens when there is repetitiveness in life. They say life is in repetition. A set routine exists. The same House, the same bed, the same waking time, the same wife, the same office, the same people, the same work load and so on. So we claim that repetitiveness is boring. But the fact is that only a man away from nature can claim that he is bored. Nothing in nature is in repetition. It is the mediocre mind that reports that situations are repetitive. The sun rises everyday, the sun sets everyday, but they never repeat. The sun rise is different everyday, the time is different, the sky is different, and the clouds are different. Everything in nature is without repetition. You find things repetitive coz you carry loads of your past and your eyes report everything from this past experiential filter. Now to add to this problem, we try and bring change in our lives. We buy a new house, a new car, we divorce the old wife, we find a new love affair exciting, but the hardcore truth is that all these new things will also become old as time goes by and the same misery will happen again and again. You see your wife everyday; you have been seeing her for years now, so you don’t see the need to see her closely. But she has been changing everyday, new expressions, new reactions, new moods, so much of newness is available, but the mediocre mind misses this newness. If you close a man's or a woman’s eyes and run their hands on their partners face in a dark room and ask him to identify the face, surely they will fail to identify that face. You have been living with that person for years, but you failed to see those sparkle in the eyes, you never felt it important to touch that face and you missed the opportunity. Remember one thing - Nothing is old, your eyes are old, you eyes fail to recognize the newness. It is conditioned to see life in fixed patterns. Freud was right in a way when he said - boredom is a result of repressed emotions. Boredom is from you, your suppressed emotions; you dead eyes, your dull mind, your whole being that has conditioned its sight in a set pattern. Your expectations from others are fixed, very crude. You reach home and you expect your wife to behave in a fixed pattern. Your husband is expected to react and behave in a fixed way. Where will the newness come from? Your mind is already fixed and you are asking for new. Your readiness for the surprises, for the newness is void. We are not living life; we are living a life of puppets. Our world is a puppet lab, simply confined to fixed expectations.
To live life to the fullest, to say a goodbye to boredom from our lives - simply live more naturally, more truthfully. Drop all those masks; they are a burden we carry. Indulge and experience all your passion, life is too short to be wasted with these masks. Let your true life be lived. Yes, it might be difficult, a little adventurous, but that difficulty will be worth facing, worth experiencing. That difficulty will make you more authentic, more real, more mature, and more aware. You will now be able to look at life through fresh eyes, all newness can be seen, your eyes will crave to explore, to touch, and to feel everything now. Life will be a new discovery, living will become a delight now, an infinite satisfaction becomes your associate now, you rise to a higher level of conscious living and you forget that word BOREDOM for ever.
For more articles on self improvement, follow me at www.mentora.in and Transforming Lives – Unlimited | A journey in search of Individuality
Submitted by : Mathew Thomas ( Mentora Champion) is a passionate Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Educational Coach who has worked with a wide range of clients including multinational organisations, education bodies, professional training providers and individuals.
From India, Mumbai
I have not come across such an article since a long time. Very Very well written and what diverse examples, excellent, Keep it up !!!
From India, Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Simply Terrific writing. That Eklavya paragraph is an eye opener. Thats what is happening to our society now. Wish every youth reads that atleast. Please keep writing on such topics !!!!!!!!!!!!
From India, Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
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