“When you pay attention to boredom it becomes unbelievably interesting.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
When social distancing began, my younger brother continued to inform me about how bored he was. The thing is that he’s not even the only one experiencing this said boredom, as every single person I’ve kept in touch with has been saying the same thing .
“Why does life feel so dull right now?”
“Why am I being less productive than before?”
“What happened to the old me?”
Were questions that I used to ask myself, and it was only when I started looking inward for when I found solutions.
In economics, there’s a principle declaring that human behavior is motivated by incentives. From brushing our teeth to exercising to an indefinite number of things, there’s an intention behind every action we take.
“Okay…So how does this relate to my boredom?”
You’re probably thinking right now.
Patience.
I’ll get there.
Ever since the rise of the COVID pandemic, the status quo of our daily routines changed for the good.
Pre-COVID, most of us had predictable schedules consisting of work/school, time for food, time for chores, time for leisure, time for hobbies, etc. After, a dash of chaos got added to our once steady schedules, and as soon as our new realities took over, the chaos then became the norm.
This is where the problem arose.
Our ingrained habits are the same as they were pre-quarantine.
So.
Our subconscious mind isn’t used to the reality we live in now, as there’s a distinction between the two.
The larger this distinction gets, the harder it will be to measure the intentions behind our actions. This is because the actions we do now aren’t giving us the same results as they did in the past.
The harder it is to recognize the intentions behind our actions, the less likely we are to perform said actions.
Perhaps you got up at the same time every day pre-quarantine, and the reason why was because you wanted to workout before your commute to work–something that is now virtual. Because the intention behind why you decided to adopt that habit got removed, you’re now less motivated to do the action, and thus, you’ll likely forgo it.
Once we stop doing the things we were once doing, like actually commuting to work / class, we then start to feel bored as a result.
When deciding whether to do something or not, remind yourself of the underlying intentions.
Once you start doing this, you’ll be able to align your habits with your physical, mental, financial, and social goals in the long-term–and your boredom will be cured.
Why?
Because you’ll then be maximizing the present moment in order to improve the future.
The ultimate goal.
JL