Kyle Furey
Blog 1
Stress and Health
3/26/2018
Boredom.
Boredom is something that everyone has dealt with at sometime in their life. Some people learn how to cope with their boredom very well, others not. It does not matter if your boredom last from 5 minutes to a whole day it is still a form of stress.
I think that the best way to cope with your boredom is to possibly have planner and have some scheduled events to look forward to throughout the day and really try to make the best of them while you are doing them. By that i mean, try not to let your mind wonder and keep yourself focused on the task at hand. There is always going to be times where absolutely nothing is happening. while you’re relaxing with your thoughts of “what can i do?”, i often ask myself this and i find many options but at the same time i see myself not doing half of the activities that i know i can do to preoccupy my time. Here is where i find myself stressing because i notice that not being productive brings me into a slump.
I did some studying and looked into the studies done on boredom and how it can actually have positive benefits from being bored! I got this information from a study done by Sandi Mann, She is a psychologist in the United Kingdom And has been doing research for the majority of her life. Sandi had came to the realization after a study that she did with 80 people. She noticed that boredom helped us with things such as feeling more productive, creative and also was mentioned to have us notice when something is amiss. Sandi ended up calling this a Mental “push” that boredom ends up giving us to actually be more productive in a sense. This info was found on the website (toolsforhealthandwellness.com)
There was also a lot of limiting factors that would keep us not wanting to be bored all the time because even though there are many hidden benefits it has very bad long term effects if we do not notice these changes now. Sandi Spoke on the negative effects also that boredom can have on us, this was called the “hyper-stimulation” cycle. This stated that people that are more prone to being bored have a higher seeking for high stimulation activities that will fill that empty area. She had a few examples of how “elevated” our senses are craving to be, these examples were things like methamphetamine, sex, and adrenaline rushes, the more you crave these feeling and fill them with the temporary stimulants you will eventually be craving these to fill that empty hole at all times. Being stuck in that position where all i can do is gather thoughts and make the best sense of them. This is where i would most likely agree with the fact that stress could be a good thing along with a horrible thing. This has made me be more productive in a sense because now when i notice that I am going through the normal process of being “bored” and this here is something that I personally think will help you once you notice what your retaining while you’re bored. Try it!
