Boredom and other messages from the mind
What do you do when you’re bored?
I was thinking about how active children’s minds are and how easily they get bored. Then I found myself being taught how boredom can be viewed as a signal from the mind. That message can be found below from my joint mind. I did a search of Frank and Rita’s The Sphere and the Hologram, and there were (not surprisingly) some interesting comments about boredom!
Being retired and having a number of friends who have recently retired as well, I’m aware that one of the greatest fears of retirement is boredom, along with loss of identity. I believe both are tied to how we’ve imbedded ourselves into our external world, mostly to the exclusion of our internal one.
Here’s a different take on boredom, along with some other advice from Me to me, which takes on a Bob Monroe flavor.
Chime in!
DeMarco, Frank; Warren, Rita (2009-06-01). The Sphere and the Hologram: Explanations from the Other Side (Kindle Locations 2596-2605). Hologram Books. Kindle Edition.
TGU: [chuckles] Well, we’ll see. [chuckles] “Interesting” is in the moment. If you put your interest only in the future, or only in the past, you lose the only reality there is. The reality is in the present, right now. Now, if you spend “now” thinking about the past, that’s okay as long as you’re “now.” And if you spend “now” thinking about the future, that’s okay as long as you’re “now.” But it’s when you forget it, you see, that you lose the reality and you become – almost ghosts of yourselves. Happens a lot.
R: Well, I feel like I’ve had an interesting life –
TGU: So far.
R: So far. And I feel like I’ve had a more interesting life than a lot of people, and I don’t know exactly what interesting means in that context, but I would hate not to have had an interesting life. [laughs softly]
TGU: Then you’re not liable to have that problem, are you?
R: Oh. Okay. Again, that’s one of those choices.
TGU: Well, unless in the larger sense you decide “I need a boring stretch so I appreciate interest more.” But we’ll say it again, it’s always well. There’s really nothing to worry about. Even though worry itself is an interesting experience. [they laugh] If only by contrast. If you’re worried about, “when I die am I going to be bored?” we would say you’re wasting your time. [laughs]
R: Bob Monroe described such an experience of sitting on a cloud and being bored.
TGU: But, don’t you see, the only way he knew he was bored was because he had grown to the point that it was boring. That by itself tells you, it’s not static unless you don’t want to move. Those who didn’t want to move are still there listening to the same cloud and the same music. And that’s fine for them too. There’s nothing wrong with that.
(John)
From My Joint Mind
How long can a young child sit quietly in silence without wanting to get up and run, play, explore or make a disturbance to get attention? Until kids get bottled up by the world around them, they express themselves very freely; they are stating their mind with no filter on it. Whether its their natural short attention span or just boredom, their minds are very actively connected to their behavior and the kids express whatever is on their mind.
(My mother used to tell me I was very accomplished at that kind of behavior. I only very rarely do it anymore. All the social norms we place on ourselves keep us from complete freedom of expression; but, that doesn’t stop the mind from working.)
Boredom is not reserved for kids, and it is not an affliction or overall dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Surely you have found yourself bored at times and your mind wanting to wander. That’s a sign that what you are doing is incongruent with what your instinct would like you to be doing. It’s a clue that you’re temporarily out of tune with yourself. Boredom is one way your mind talks to you.
Usually it isn’t difficult to know where your mind would rather be when you are bored. Often you can satisfy that urge. Get up and move. Go somewhere. Contact a friend. “Stimulate” your mind. That’s what the mind message is: I need some stimulation! Of course you don’t always do that. You usually don’t say to someone in the middle of a conversation, “Sorry this is boring me, I’m going to do something else!” All of us are attentive to our “obligations and our responsibilities”. Guilt (heaven forbid) might even kick in!
We are not prescribing behavioral guidelines. We are simply alerting you to opportunities to tune into your deeper mind.
Boredom is a signal that the mind is ready for more. Sooner or later it will always be ready for more! If your modus operandi is to feed your mind with external stimuli, which is natural learned behavior for humans in the physical, then you seek travel, adventure, exercise; symphonies, plays, movies, and friends; books and the Internet.
Often the external senses dull and reduce with age. [I can speak with authority on this: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching are not what they were; and the body no longer will do what it used to be able to do.] We can discuss at another time whether it happens because of aging or whether you choose to gradually dull them yourself as you prepare for transition—but that’s a side track at this time.
When the external options gradually or suddenly disappear, the internal options open up. “Going internal “can seem like shutting down to an externally focused being. But it actually is an opening up of regions of consciousness far greater than your limited universe. Fortunately you have eternity to explore them.
[John: What is that uneasy feeling you get, when you are not putting yourself into something? I’ve had it many times: when I found myself somewhere I didn’t want to be; when I found myself saying, “good enough, it doesn’t matter.” The head rationalizes just do the least necessary to get by, but the heart and the gut say, “You didn’t put yourself into that!”]
More From My Joint Mind:
Those feelings arise from your mind sending you a message that something is not in synch. You have choices, and if you find yourself in a half-hearted condition you owe it to yourself to either choose to put yourself in different circumstances where you can be “all in” or change your attitude relative to the situation. It might be useful to remind yourself that you are far from alone. You are “point” for a whole lot of consciousness that’s supporting you and living with and through you. Ask for their help, ask for their energy, ask them to connect you to your mainspring (or “main spring”!).
An opposite extreme from this condition is that of wasted energy. Oh how easy it is to do that. By wasted energy we mean getting all worked up over something that doesn’t matter very much to your greater consciousness. A lack of perspective will get you into this kind of situation quickly. There’s a pretty long list here: Your favorite team loses, and you fret over it for a week. You spend a lot of time and energy trying to keep up with status or materialism. Or you get “wrapped around the axle” over what someone else says or does, or you let circumstances get under your skin. The list could go on. It’s oh so human. But oh so wasteful. We are not judging behavior, we are wanting to make you aware of excesses, and help you to find how to get your energy more in tune with the greater good. [As I recall, Bob Monroe referred to some of this as “weights” that kept us tied to Earth.]
It’s really easy to gain perspective. All you have to do is put yourself in the shoes of your greater being and ask yourself, “Is this a direction we want to go in?”, “Is this how we want to be?” If you can ask yourself those questions candidly from that higher perspective you will find your path again.
Listen to your mind! You always have the option to pause or to be stimulated, and if external stimulation dull, the whole internal realm remains wide open. Follow your mind inward. It leads you to harmony and synchrony.
Via John