The Blah Illusion

Banishing boredom by opening perception

Dear Death,

I’m getting a little bored of life. I’m not depressed but I have a kind of boring job. I go out a couple times a week and drink with my same friends from high school and college and have the same conversations we had years ago. I watch TV a lot. I don’t really have anything else I want to do that I’m not doing. I’m just bored. What do I do to make my life fun again like it used to be?

Feeling Blah

Dear Feeling Blah,

You live in a time of access to never-ending stimulation. There is always another video to watch on social media. You can’t stream every show and movie. There is always more.

The kind of boredom you are having is that of constant stimulation and novelty without meaning or insight. You are going through the motions of consuming without exploring or discovering new things about yourself.  

As boredom sets in, the capacity to perceive shuts down. You see less of the world, hear less, and notice fewer of its captivating details. Boredom is, at its root, a closing of perception. You stop living in the real world of myriad details and wonder and create a grayer, more drab world in your head. You can get stuck there and it’s an awfully boring place to be.

In some cases boredom can become worse things like depression. At other times years can go by that are just OK, with a sense you’ve wasted your life on Netflix and Spreadsheets. Either way, there are effective mindfulness exercises to move through boredom into engagement.

The Path Back to Curiosity and Wonder

A smartphone today a constant temptation to indulge in the empty stimulation at the core of the boredom problem. So for all of the following exercises, set limits with your phone. Sleep with it in another room. Delete your most addictive apps. Leave the phone at home in the walking meditations to follow. Keep in mind that you can reengage with your phone with more moderation once you make progress. But for now, set smart limits for yourself.

First, let’s go for a walk outside at half your normal pace without that phone. Walk slowly and deliberately and practice noticing things. If you are in an urban area, have you ever noticed how many stories all the buildings in your neighborhood are? What kinds of trees or plants are growing around you. How do they look different? Are their leaves different shades of green? Are there cracks in the sidewalk and what do you think caused them? Are there roots pushing up? Did the ground freeze this winter creating ice expanding beneath it? Is there birdsong and can you spot the bird making it?

Walk for 10 minutes to a half an hour and practice noticing details around where you live that you haven’t before. I promise there are so many that you can do this meditation as many times as like and always notice more details you haven’t seen before.

As you notice these details, start to reflect on how much the bored mind doesn’t see or hear. Start to let the noticing draw you back into curiosity and subtle appreciation of all the small details that make the world endlessly fascinating.

Once you have been doing the walking meditation for at least 5 consecutive days, it’s time to try a sitting meditation and notice subtle detail in your body. Wait to do this sitting meditation until the walking meditation takes hold because the boredom can be excruciating at first in a sitting meditation and some practice noticing will help break through that wall.

Set a 10 to 15 minute timer and sit comfortably. Take long slow breaths and slowly scan your body with your perception starting with your toes and moving up slowly. Take at least two full breaths in each span of your body. Notice what feels tight. Notice what feels tingly. Relax. Notice the subtle feeling of how what’s happening in your toes is different from what is happening in your foot, your calf, your knee, etc. Feel how the sensations inside you are always changing and how different parts of your body can be feeling very different things.

Once you get to the top of your head, start heading back down with the scan. Notice how each part of your body may feel different on the second pass.

As you go up and down, start to notice how good it feels, at least sometimes, to notice what is happening in your body. There is subtle joy simply in tuning in. See if you can notice and enjoy that subtle awareness of yourself. 

Pulling Back into Engagement

As you practice noticing what is invisible to you now, let it pull you back into engagement. The habit of noticing more can awaken you to causes you care about, opportunities to do new things, or new hobbies you want to engage in. You can let your widening perspective guide you to the things you are naturally most interested in.

You can also try talking about some of the new things you have been noticing and thinking about with the people in your life. As your perception widens again, walk boldly into that more full world. It’s fun just to be there. And what you want to do once you are back in that more full and real world is up to you.

Sincerely,

Death

P.S. We need more questions. Email any questions for death to AskDeath@WeCroak.com!