“You’re gonna be so bored with all that free time!”
Boredom is waiting for something or hoping for something to happen while the mind isn’t preoccupied with a situation.
Boredom is the mind-gap between external events.
I have realized that I derive pleasure from being engrossed in an activity as much as I enjoy the gaps between whatever is consuming my attention.
The fast world of today has ADD’d many minds. Waiting for a browser to load is pretty much the end of the world nowadays. I have reached for my phone’s browser at times when those 7.4 seconds were just too intolerable to bear on my laptop.
Sitting idly and feeling our breathing, sensing our body in motion when we go for a walk or observing the thousands of intrusive thoughts when staring out over a beautiful landscape are all background substances that shadow daily activities.
The intrusive thoughts are what many have problems with. We think it’s bad to have them, wanting to rid our minds of these we resort to all sorts of activities or inactivities.
I have come to learn that having these thoughts is normal. They will come into your conscious mind or your dreams whenever they like. Even the most negative thoughts you can imagine are simply concepts your mind creates, regardless of how vivid and creative, to keep you on your toes.
Paying them any attention beyond acknowledging them will give them a validation that they don’t need. Observing them as fleeting thoughts and nothing more is often the correct conscious way to deal with them.
Even if such thoughts make you angry, sad, depressed or excited, they are only thoughts and matter as much as they weigh.
Maybe the man who picks up a gun to go on a shooting rampage had such intrusive thoughts, thoughts of killing his fellow man.
Perhaps he paid more attention to such thoughts than he should have.
Perhaps he felt guilty.
Perhaps he defined his character because of having such thoughts.
Thoughts which are ignored lose their potency.
Thoughts which are validated will grow, other thoughts are created to fuel the flame and soon you either have to act on them or go see a shrink.
What the fuck does all this have to do with a leisurely day?
To enjoy such a day you got to be able to sit comfortably with such deranged thoughts. Recognize them, ignore them, let them buzz around you like flies for a while and watch them disappear completely for a while.
Boredom is how thoughts like this creep in.
Our response is to immediately take up another mind consuming activity.
This masks such thoughts but does nothing to extinguish them.
When my woman came up to visit me in Portland I spent nearly an entire Thursday from noon until late into the night making a few delicious ass desserts. Damn did I have a blast.
I took my time, I was sipping wine, no rush and no pressure.
Sometime around 6pm I realized why elderly retired people don’t get bored… they take their time doing shit.
Leisurely activities are so much more enjoyable than rushed chores.
No, I didn’t get bored stretching out a 2-hr deal to ten.
I took out the trash & recycling later that evening and when I went to pick up both bags which were in imminent danger of tearing and spilling all sorts of nasty shit on my clothes, I decided that I would take one bag at a time.
For real, it was like a zen moment.
I walked down with a bag, sat it down in front of the trash can, separated out the glass from the other recyclables and placed them neatly into the recycle bins.
I wasn’t in any hurry.
Mother.fucking.zen!
While everyone around me is busy trying to accomplish 12 things in one day it seems that I’m having a better time trying to just accomplish 1.
That fine Thursday the task was making them bomb-ass vegan desserts.
I felt ambitious so I threw in a little trash duty.
Imagine how much less stressful shit would be if people weren’t rushing through their day.
If they weren’t honking because they didn’t want to sit behind yet another red light.
If there was no rush to get through the grocery store aisle.
Is it too utopian? Doesn’t need to be… imagine having such leisurely days at work that you would never even want to retire from your job.