If you have ever found yourself daydreaming, staring at your TV screen while it’s on mute for several hours or even sleeping at a musical concert, then we can confidently congratulate you for experiencing the state of boredom.
According to a renowned psychology scholar – Cynthia D.Fisher boredom can be described as, “an unpleasant transient affective state in which the individual feels a pervasive lack of interest and difficulty concentrating on the current activity.”
Sounds familiar?
Isn’t it amazing that the human mind which constantly runs to keep us alive still finds time to be bored? Maybe, the real question here is: why do people get bored?
Working 8 hours a day from Monday to Friday is monotonous, hanging out with the same person every damn day is monotonous, eating the same food 3 times everyday is monotonous, so why on earth do you think doing the same thing over and over won’t lead you to the point of being bored out of your mind?
But boredom goes beyond monotony!
Did you know that if your environment fails to stimulate you, or you lack interest in certain activity, or maybe there’s even a lack of emotional awareness, you will automatically become restless which would lead to boredom? And vice versa.
The good and interesting part to all of these is that boredom is not a disease and one can get over it in no time. We’ll suggest you try any of the following cool ideas when the spirit of boredom falls on you:
- Visit / chat up an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time. We are pretty sure you have 1 or 2 people who fit this category.
- You’ve probably been watching same TV channels over and over for months. Why not switch from the usual news and sports media to watch some Food channel or Yoruba Nollywood? (Odunlade Adekola’s facial expressions in his movies is enough to kick out boredom)
- When last did you take a walk or drive around your neighborhood or even into a school campus to people-watch? What do you think boredom would do when it sees the bubbly, vibrant, energetic, youthful campus life of Unilag or some other school in your city?
- Go window shopping! Try going to the mall to see what’s on the shelves. You don’t necessarily have to buy anything. Just give your eyes new interestingness to feed on. A little shop-dreaming won’t hurt.
- And if all else fails, and all you’ve got is your phone and a little mobile data, then head over to the Nigerian Twitter Map to discover influencers and thought leaders who discuss conversations you truly care about.
Now that we have helped you get out of your boredom state, can we also tell you the part where we almost left out?
Boredom actually has its benefits!
Weird as shit but this is scientifically proven by and psychologists.
- Forced creativity: When bored, you’re forced to think of a different way to do things, right? Now that’s you thinking in a divergent way and building your creativity.
- Stimulus for change: So you have been bored at this job for so long. Boredom tells you that it’s probably time for a change.
- Boredom breeds better ideas and greater ambitions, which eventually lead you to one becoming a better person.
Seems like boredom is the trigger we all need!