Google tells me boredom is a condition characterized by perception of one’s environment as dull, tedious and lacking stimulation. The state of feeling disinterested in one’s surroundings, having nothing to do, or feeling that life is dull. It is a state of feeling disconnected with life without anything particular to do or not being interested. Problems of engagement of attention.
Here’s my take on it. People experience boredom because they expect life to entertain them. We want something other than us to stimulate us. They’ve lost the wonder and fascination of simply being with life however it’s showing up right now. They are expecting to get something from life rather that collaborate with it. So, they’re blind to so much of what’s all around them and within, constantly offering investigation, exploration and amazement.
We experience boredom because we’ve forgotten how to be with ourselves — how to be curious about and with life. Kids don’t have this problem. They don’t expect. They inspect. Then they do something with what’s available. They play with it. Make up games and look for the most enjoyment possible.
That is until we teach them differently. Like it’s not good or worth playing with. Yeah?
When is the last time you watched ants at work or chased a butterfly — Like a kid filled with wonder and curiosity? Well, if you’re thinking you’re bored, why not take a lesson from kids and see how impossible it is to be bored and curious at the same time. If fun is the goal, curiosity is the fuel for the vehicle that gets you there.
Walk to the nearest playground or your back yard or wherever children are playing and take up a seat. Apprentice yourself to what you experience through them. Just watching kids play activates a primal joy within us. We can’t help but smile. Like, aha, yes. I know that feeling. We’re enlivened just by being present with that kind of free, joyful abandon. Yes? Don’t take my word for it. Check it for yourself.
One of the side effects of this high-tech world is that we’ve lost the art of refurbishing our lives with what is always already available — at least as a starting point idea for participating in the moment.
We feel a sense of emptiness or restlessness and we think it means we need something. We head for the fridge. We get on amazon or social media and without realizing it, give permission to that stimulus to decide for us what will satisfy that emptiness or restlessness.
But what if it the sense of emptiness or restlessness is an invitation to be more fully present? To breathe deeply into the moment and appreciate being alive? What if we see it as a welcome break from the hustle bustle of our lives. And before we dictate to it what it needs to fix it, why don’t we be here completely. Notice the energy waves in our body and the story spinning in our head and do nothing but notice. Soften around noticing and letting it be what it is… Be with it until we feel our aliveness pulsing and appreciate our aliveness. What’s the downside?
What would happen if you, just for a moment, withdrew your attention from the story of your life and just immersed yourself in the mystery of life. What is it to be alive? We can’t really say but we feel it pulsing through us. We know we are alive and we know we ar part of this living mystery. Yet this knowing can be overlooked when we’re consumed in the story.
Let’s explore this a bit together right now. You game?
Just pause what you’re doing for a moment and notice the sensations in your body right now. Now, just choose to experience them fully. Feel the air on your skin, the dryness or moisture in your eyes, notice where your tense and if pain surfaces as you attend to your physicality. Notice the air moving in and out of your nostrils and lungs.
Next notice you are hearing and listen closely to the sounds around you, even very subtle sounds, then listen inside to your breath, your heartbeat. Listen intently, like you’re listening to a secret.
Notice that thoughts arising and just let them come with little regard for what they’re saying, choosing not to follow them, but letting them pass by.
Because right now we’re more interested in experiencing receiving the sounds and sensation of life in this moment – the physicality of the body, sensation of the air on the skin, the feeling of weight and gravity of our body and the sense of groundedness that attending to our experience brings.
Now let’s get even more subtle and zero in on the breath, the delicious sensation as it enters the nostrils and lungs and rises and falls the chest and belly as it moves through us. Notice how the breath naturally deepens and becomes fuller with attention. Feel how the body softens with the breathing and the mind calms. Notice it feels good to just be in the body, feeling, listening, being present.
Now look around and without naming anything see the colors and shades of colors and textures and soft surfaces that make up the world before and around us. Brush your finger of one hand lightly on on the opposite arm and feel the sensation of touch on both the fingers and arm. Touch the object nearest to you in the same gentle exploratory way. Feel the aliveness of this moment, can’t you just taste it as you take it all in?
At this point you might notice nothing needs to be done. But let’s take it a little deeper right now. With eyes closed let our awareness sink deep within to that which is aware. Allow everything physical to soften and sink deep within ourself, becoming aware of our own presence within — the thing we call ‘I’. Just notice being conscious of being the experiencer experiencing the stream or pulse of life this moment.
Previously we we’d been focusing on what we were experiencing. Now we’re choosing to be conscious of being — as the experiencer of all that we’re experiencing.
Notice being conscious of being the presence of awareness witnessing and experiencing this moment. It’s I and its experience. Yet this I is indescribable. Only known. We are knowing our experience. Without knowing how.
Imagine or try to contemplate the miraculous cosmic activity that made this moment possible. This precious aliveness living as us. We are the ever-presence, experiencing the the ever-changing experiences.
Now open your eyes and see look around, allow this depth of experience speak. Allow this aliveness to spark intuition or creativity or connection or whatever springs to mind from this lovely joyful fullness.
Take a check. Are you really bored?
Mindfulness and boredom can’t coexist. If we’re actually present with whatever is going on, even if it seems like nothing, appreciation for life and love for being rise to our awareness and everything around us looks brighter and vibrant with life. Give it a spin.
Have a Yummy day!!!
