A couple of days ago, as my son sat beside me, he said, “I am getting bored.”
Baffled by his words, I looked towards him and responded, “how can someone with so many tasks to get done be bored.” He knew I was referring to his academic assignments and studies.
He replied , “Mom, when we have so many things to do and we don’t feel like doing any of them, that’s when we get bored.” A surprisingly insightful reply, isn’t it? I had to agree with him.
Typically, we associate boredom with idleness. Nevertheless, upon reflection, it becomes clear that boredom is not merely the lack of activity. It is the absence of interest and motivation to involve in the available activities. We may have several tasks waiting to be accomplished but we may still be bored.
It is evident that boredom is a psychological state defined by feelings and emotions, and so it cannot be fully assessed by the unavailability of activities in our surroundings. Instead, the assessment of the feeling is supposed to be subjective.
Boredom is not merely about whether or not we have something to do in order to keep us busy. It is also about whether we drive some positive feelings from the things that we have to do. If the tasks at our disposal are not interesting or rewarding to us, no matter how long the list is, we still experience boredom.
I don’t remember the last time I experienced boredom. Perhaps never. Walking down the memory lane, I could not find any instance when I had to think of something to overcome my boredom 🤔. There might be a few instances. I don’t remember any, though. 🤷♀️
I do experience other negative feelings such as anger, frustration, anxiety and fatigue; however, boredom is rare to me. I always have something to do, often more tasks to do than I accomplish in the given time. In fact, at times, it is the inability to accomplish all the tasks that cause me frustration and anger.
Being a household manager and a mother of two children, the lists of chores is never ending. On the top of that, I am obsessed with cleaning and organization. So, I often find a lot of work in hidden corners of the house.
These routine tasks may be perceived as monotonous or boring to other people but they are satisfying to me, as they give me a sense of accomplishment and a sense of fulfilling my responsibilities. Moreover, I am not a person who needs excessive stimulation for experiencing joy. The sense of purposefulness and achievement in the tasks that I do is enough to make me satisfied.
Thus, I don't have any urge to explore meaningless thrills only to kill the free time.
Further, I am more of an introvert. I don’t have a craving for constant presence of people, chatters and outgoing activities around me. I feel relief and satisfaction in the sanctuary of my home. The comfort and peace of my place means a lot to me. Going out or having visitors frequently feels more like a disruption than a delight.
In conclusion, my introvert tilting personality, my calmness loving nature, my obsession with cleaning and organization, my well settled priorities and the ability to derive joy from the fulfilment of my responsibilities never let me get bored.
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Images are generated by me using Meta AI
