In 1990, when James Danckert was 18 years old, his older brother Paul was involved in an accident when he crashed his car into a tree. He was pulled out of the crumpled body with numerous fractures and bruises. Unfortunately, there was also a traumatic brain injury.
The rehabilitation period was very long and difficult. Before the accident, Paul was a drummer and loved music. However, even after his broken wrist healed, he had absolutely no desire to pick up the sticks and start playing. This activity no longer brought him pleasure.
Over and over again, Paul complained to his brother that he was incredibly bored. And it wasn’t a matter of bouts of post-traumatic depression. It’s just that now the things that he used to love with all his soul did not evoke absolutely any emotions in him except deep disappointment.
A few years later, James began training to become a clinical neuropsychologist. During his training, he examined about twenty people who had suffered traumatic brain injuries. Thinking about his brother, Dankert asked them if they felt bored. All twenty people who took part in the study responded positively.
This experience greatly helped Danckert in his future career. He currently works as a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo in Canada. This place is famous because it was here that scientists first began to seriously study boredom.
Laziness
If you observe social networks, you will notice that laziness is almost cultivated. They joke about it, they compete to see who is the laziest. This erases an important fact: laziness is definitely a negative quality. It leads to the fact that a person cannot force himself to do anything, even what is really necessary. Because of this, life becomes boring and monotonous.
It’s worth asking yourself: why has my life become boring? Because there really is no time? Or are all your free minutes spent reviewing endless news on your social media feed? Is the evening devoted to aimlessly wandering through TV channels?
To overcome laziness, you first have to make an effort and force yourself to do something. To make it easier, you need to learn to enjoy the process, even from doing the most boring work. It’s worth giving yourself the mindset: action is better than inactivity.
Short-term boredom
Short-term boredom is encountered when one’s own state is closely dependent on external events. And so, if a person with such an addiction cannot squeeze bright impressions out of a current event, then he begins to hurry up what is happening so that the turn of something more exciting will soon come. Therefore, short-term boredom is often accompanied by impatient irritation.
From this perspective, boredom is an unwillingness to be satisfied with what is, and an unconscious claim to something more - a kind of childish assertion of the right to better entertainment.
That is, a person throws off responsibility for his own mood, and, manipulating boredom, demands that he be entertained more diligently. All this, of course, happens implicitly and even unintentionally, but in the depths of the soul, out of a long-standing childhood habit. Therefore, the bored person himself can feel his complaints as a vague exclamation to some abstract forces responsible for the program of events.
Boring job
Life can seem boring if most of it is spent doing work you don't like. In order not to howl with melancholy, some psychologists recommend doing work as if it brings pleasure - this is a way to beat your perception. If it doesn’t work out, then you should try, doing your work and focusing completely on it, without being distracted by thoughts about your lunch break or flirting with a colleague. It's easier to get carried away by a process you're completely focused on.
There can be a great temptation to do something you don't like carelessly. This is also obviously a dead end path. On the contrary, if you do your job in the best possible way and monitor your results, your work will be more interesting. Some people compare work to an empty house. Doing only what you need to do is like living in an empty house. And if you bring something of your own into it, it will be more interesting.
For example, the cashier is required to say hello, offer a package, punch the item and take the money. But if this cashier remembers regular customers, greets them and remembers, for example, that they never take a package or inquires about the health of other family members, he himself will be more interested in his job.
It is important to get rid of a negative attitude towards your business and gossip that someone is given a more interesting job. By talking about this you can convince not only others, but also yourself. This approach does not make you happy.
Another way to add variety to a boring job is to get better at it. Improve your qualifications, or learn more about communicating with people or about the technology you will have to work with. By gaining new knowledge, it is easier to see the big picture, it becomes easier to solve problems and, in general, life is more interesting. In addition, there is a greater chance that a person who is good at his job will be valued more: his salary will be increased or he will be offered a different position.
Queue to nowhere
Boredom can be situational or existential. What does a person who is situationally bored look like? This is the lady in line who shakes her leg and constantly looks at her watch. This is a child fidgeting in a chair. He starts reading something on his phone, then puts it down, then turns on a cartoon and puts the phone down again. Such boredom is demonstrated by the unfinished painting by P.A. Fedotova. We see an officer languishing from idleness on the edge of the world - the faceless landscape behind the tiny window only completes the picture. He kills time by commanding his dog to jump over a stick - again and again:
Anchor, more anchor! Pavel Fedotov. 1851–1852
Existential boredom can hardly be expressed through movements, because it is a longing for something desired, but impossible or incomprehensible. Schopenhauer describes it as “a faded longing for some vague object,” and psychotherapists call it existential frustration—an unsatisfied desire for meaning. This is a longing for something desired, but unfound, unrecognized. Existential boredom can strike you at a noisy party, when you are suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of the meaninglessness of everything that is happening. May persistently haunt home, in a series of routines. It may arise on our next journey that we carry this feeling with us:
“Boredom” is the emptiness of winter village idleness, and the exhausting hopelessness of hard work, and the loneliness of the peasants, and the brutality of being crowded. “Boredom” is not associated with this or that situation, but with the same general order of being. With this damp air. With a sun that shines with a cold, white, flat light. With fog. With the dust that rises from the roads when they dry out. With dust, which is like fog and, filling the space, emphasizes its irresistibility.
Lev Anninsky. "The Life of Yuri Kazakov"
Constant boredom can be one of the symptoms of depression and other mental disorders. The line ends someday, but what about this inner feeling of emptiness, the expectation of something previously unfulfilled inside, this inner queue to nowhere?
Lack of time
It may seem strange, but some people may find life boring because they believe that they do not have enough free time. Firstly, as stated above, they can try to enjoy what they spend most of their time doing.
You can try to arrange a day for yourself without the Internet and TV. This will help you notice how much time is actually wasted. But they could be devoted to something actually interesting: learning a new language, a hobby, communicating with loved ones.
What leads to a boring life?
Routine, responsibilities and a constant measured lifestyle can cause boredom. But it is worth noting that many, wanting to quickly fill their lives with bright colors, resort to drastic and often rash actions - engaging in extreme sports, using tobacco or alcohol products, or even drugs. These are extreme measures from which you should try to abstract yourself.
Few people look for truly useful activities and thus make their life more interesting.
A boring, monotonous life can cause:
- nervous tension and depression;
- desire to work constantly without breaks for rest;
- overstrain as a result of constant active work of the brain;
- aggression and irritability;
- addiction to tobacco and alcohol, other bad habits;
- lack of ability to concentrate.
I will name 3 main reasons that stimulate boredom:
- Deceptive stability. Many people do not change anything in their own lives for years, not wanting to part with the sense of stability that they impose on themselves. In the minds of such people, any change can destroy their usual way of life.
- Laziness is the most common cause of boredom. It is the reluctance to act, do something and change your life that leads to boredom. It is easier for a person to do nothing and constantly be where he is.
- Lack of self-confidence. The reluctance to concentrate the attention of others on themselves, the fear of criticism and gossip force many to lead a routine, monotonous lifestyle.
What else can you do?
There are opportunities to bring interest into your life every day. For example, set yourself a goal every day to do something differently than usual. It could be a small thing: for example, instead of taking the bus to work, ride a bike or walk. The changes don't have to be rational: it may be faster and more convenient to travel by bus. But you can drink coffee on foot along the way. Everyone decides for himself what exactly new he will do: put on a different shirt, smile at a colleague, or put a flower in a pot on his desk.
Being may not determine consciousness in everything, but it certainly influences it. This means you need to change something in your home. Rearranging the furniture or re-pasting the wallpaper can also help you learn something new. An important step is to throw away everything old, something that no one has used for the last couple of years, but is lying around just in case. Our attitude towards life is greatly influenced by the things we have.
There is a simple psychological trick: if you want to put things in order in your head, put things in order in your closet. Following this analogy, you can get the conclusion: if you want changes to happen in your head, change something in the closet and in the house, throw away the old, dull, broken and give it to someone you don’t need.
Another way to avoid boredom is to agree to help someone more often. This is an opportunity to get joy from what was useful, make new friends and learn something new. There is no need to dive headlong into altruism, allowing people to sit on your neck. But you shouldn’t be too upset because of someone’s ingratitude either: we do good first of all for ourselves.
Happiness inflation
Here we are trying a kiss on the lips for the first time - and ten years later it turns into automatism. For the first time we get behind the wheel with sweaty palms - as time passes, the road becomes a routine. A kind of inflation of happiness.
But the existential boredom that is constantly present within us requires new sensations. And we start a new business in the hope that it will give meaning to our lives. We decide to change apartment or country in the hope that everything will be new there. We change partners or decide to be alone forever in the hope that the new relationship will not become commonplace.
In the film 50 First Dates, the main character suffers from an unusual disorder: she wakes up every day without remembering the previous ones. Adam Sandler's hero conquers her again and again, receiving that very cherished first kiss every day. But can the fiftieth first kiss still be the same first?
Spoiler alert:
What not to do
Do not try to abuse alcohol or take drugs. This is not the kind of variety that brings long-term results. Firstly, after alcohol or drug intoxication, life does not seem so interesting. Secondly, the consequences that appear later do not make you bored, but they also cannot make you happy.
Don't spend hours on the Internet. Jokes, videos, news (fake and real) - the series of changing pictures on social networks is simply addictive. Some of this can be really interesting, but most of it is viewed automatically, just looking for something new.
Firstly, this takes an unreasonably long time - if all the time spent on social networks is spent on learning to play some musical instrument, then in a couple of months you can achieve good results. Secondly, the Internet creates the illusion of busyness. It’s like expecting to have a toned body by watching fitness classes: expecting to have an interesting life for yourself by watching how exciting it is for someone else.
Don't feel sorry for yourself. This is the root of laziness and most fears. There is no need to feel sorry for yourself, giving up after the first thought that something is impossible. These may be thoughts: “Well, I can’t get up so early!” Why? I really can’t because I have to be at work at five in the morning? Or is it because we stay on our smartphones until midnight? "I can not do it!"
Really can't, or am I just not willing to put in more effort than usual? If you constantly feel sorry for a child, without forcing him to read, get up early for school, study and train hard, he will eventually grow up to be a deeply unhappy person. The same thing happens to an adult who is used to feeling sorry for himself.
If you live each day as just a to-do list, life can actually become boring. But this is not a verdict: you can always change either your lifestyle or your attitude towards it. And enjoy these changes.
Stella, Svirsk
Ways to overcome boredom and fatigue
Therefore, in order to combat this feeling and reduce or completely get rid of it, depending on each of the influencing factors, it is necessary to take the desired path and method, as well as a specific practical solution.
To do this, pay attention to the following tips:
- Try to make small changes in your life from time to time.
- Idleness and lack of activity are important factors that cause boredom. Use your hands. Sitting and looking at some point does not change anything. Get up and get to work.
- Feeling empty and believing that your life, work, and activities are meaningless can push you to the brink of depression. You shouldn't think of your life as an endless cycle of goals. Your job is to find out what it is and make it happen.
- Learn something new every day and expand your knowledge.
- Challenge yourself. Engage in activities that relieve you of mild stress;
- Remember that nothing is boring; rather, it is your impatient mind that finds everything boring. Boredom is a relative and internal thing. Change your thoughts so that your feelings change.
Boredom is the misfortune of happy people.
- Awaken your curiosity. Don’t be indifferent to others, try to figure everything out; of course, with the exception of other people's personal problems.
- Fantasize. Excessive fantasy can take you far from reality, but imagination can be used to relieve boredom. Imagine and make your dream come true.
- Repeating everyday or habitual actions is very tiring. So choose other ideas, options and opportunities. For example, don't drink sweet tea for breakfast every day, don't drink coffee or milk during the day, or don't do any specific activity for an hour every day. Change your usual manicure color or hairstyle.
- Think back to the important decisions you have made in the past and notice that you are just as willing to do important things and make important decisions as before.
- By making simple decisions on simple problems, gradually build your confidence and ability and pave the way for making decisions on more complex issues.
- Avoid oversleeping, overeating and other manifestations of laziness and weakness of will.
- Uncertainty in decision-making and delay in action lead to a great loss of spiritual and material wealth and cause many losses.
