Change of pace can cure boredom

You are bored, and you can’t seem to snap out of it. Your friends always seem energetic, optimistic and full of vitality. Whatever their state of life, they adapt. What can you do? And what is boredom?

Many professionals believe boredom is not a feeling in itself. Unlike feeling happy or feeling sad, boredom is really a state of being. Almost akin to inertia, it is the inability to remove oneself from a certain stage. Before boredom sets in, you may find yourself with a sense of disconnection. You find you can’t get in touch with your surroundings or you may feel helpless to function. Nearly everyone has experienced cabin fever when it was either too hot or too cold to go outside or after a time of confinement when recuperating from an illness. Unable to find things to occupy your mind and your time, you proclaimed boredom. Some people experience boredom on a trip. Away from familiar surroundings, perhaps without their own automobile, they feel disconnected and helpless, bored with the situation at hand.

While most people experiencing boredom find a change of pace, restore their enthusiasm and get on with life, others find it more difficult. Usually, these people are:

Those who crave excitement. They thrive on danger, need a thrill every day to keep the adrenalin going. They will go to any lengths to upset the daily routine. These people are more likely to seek extramarital affairs, pursue dangerous leisure time sports or disrupt the office organization, even provoking arguments just for the fun of seeing tempers flare.

Conversely, there are those who never take a chance, never allow any stimulation to come into their lives. They may live vicariously through a movie, but even they won’t absorb enough emotion to let their true feelings show. They would never take the initiative in making new friends. They would rather endure loneliness and have a strict routine so they can profess boredom.

The third type of boredom affects nearly everyone at some time or another and is the situational event. You may feel like an outsider at a party. Because you don’t strike up an interesting conversation with someone, you may feel bored or reject the entire group and proclaim loneliness.

What can you do?

If you are the type who must have excitement, take another look at your life. Write a self-contract. Promise to lead a normal everyday life for a given period of time. Get plenty of sleep with a regular bedtime. Take a daily walk. Read something for information, not a Mike Hammer thriller. Your goal is to find fulfillment by reaching a plateau.

If you are the type that is too constrained, start taking fun seriously. Plan for daily entertainment. Do something different every day. Read travel literature, imagine yourself on a luxurious cruise. Fill a daily calendar and don’t allow yourself any idle time for a given period of time. Your goal is to put more fun in your life.

And for those who get bored in a situation of no escape, use that time to sit or stand alone. Since most boredom comes from within, reach deep within yourself. Surely there is some unfulfilled fantasy there. If you won it, how would you spend a million dollars? How would you interview Robert Redford? Imagine yourself on a spaceship, destination planet unknown.

Life is too short for chronic boredom. Every day is an adventure.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1986