Oakville Zen Meditation

#224 WHEN BOREDOM becomes an opportunity

                                               When boredom becomes an opportunity

 We don’t like to be bored. When we are actively engaged in something, there is no boredom.

But when there is nothing interesting or mandatory to absorb our attention or entertain, it starts to hurt our self-image very quickly.

But if we suddenly become idle in our space-time, we begin to seek for something to do.

If not, boredom kicks in. We feel being in a vacuum, a no-body.

Our ego feels empty, useless or wasting its time and our self-image is wounded.

“Me, doing nothing: it is impossible, I should be busy”. Boredom can make us anxious

 

Like any other negative feelings, we are creating boredom and we struggle in its grips trying to escape from it w/o too much success.

Boredom completely zaps our creativity because we are upset to be caught in it.

The world not only fails to entertain us, but it punishes us with a monotonous and dull feeling and the perception of wasting our precious moments.

We imagine a million things we could be doing rather than being bored, but we can do none of those things because we feel being stuck .

All it takes to dislodge boredom is doing something perceived to be important, mandatory or entertaining.

Dislodging boredom can also be done simply in focusing on something such as breathing or even...boredom.

If you have been listening to this talk, you may begin to suffer from boredom, hoping that the talk will be short to do something else.

All of this is bad news ...and it is getting worse.

If you decide to judge your meditation (thing that you should not do, ever), meditation can be perceived to be one of the most boring things in the world.

Sitting still with the perception of doing absolutely nothing is the essence of this perceived boredom that we have created. Perception dictate feelings.

However, mindfulness meditation it is also one of the best antidote to boredom.

The act of bringing back your attention 1) to your posture 2) to your breathing in and out 3) your wandering mind will enhance your alertness and banish boredom for a little while.

Then your mind will wander again and boredom will pops up again.

You refocus and it goes away.

You do this back and forth until the bell ring announcing the end of meditation save you and boredom is gone..

Regular formal and on the go mediation during the day, helps us practice refocusing our mind, helping us in breaking free from the trap of boredom.

Remember this: boredom will always find the cracks of your activities, but when you accept it as it is and how to deal with it, it doesn’t hurt so much.

When you are or feel bored, just be mindful to it and tell yourself: “I am bored but it is OK because I created it”. Just observe it w/o judgment and this negative feeling will fade out.

When bored, don’t be upset or impatient for finding something to do to reboot your ego and feel useful again because, like everything else, boredom is transient.