Feeling Bored? Be Grateful & Curious
When you're bored, you'll either stay being bored or do something else to keep the boredom away.
The possibility of you stay being bored at work is quite high, because you can't do stuff that kills your boredom, like playing games, shopping, etc.
Even if you're able to kill your boredom, you could be bored killing your boredom by doing the same thing over and over again.
So, you're back to square one, looking for more interesting stuff, which will become uninteresting soon.
What's the permanent cure of boredom?
I would say Gratitude and Curiosity.
Gratitude - find blessings out of ordinary.
Curiosity - question the ordinary.
Why? Why being grateful and curious cures boredom?
In a grateful state of mind, you focus on the good more than the bad. You intentionally look for positive things that happen to you, and you're happy with those events. You take notice of blessings out of ordinary stuff.
And when you know and celebrate those blessings, your days become more meaningful, more interesting from your lenses.
In a curious state of mind, you look for wisdom behind ordinary scenes. You question why and how things work the way they work. With every question, comes an answer that you never knew in depth. With every question you ask, you're opening inifinite number of doors to ideas, creativity, inspiration and wisdom.
Imagine a life like this, uber interesting isn't it?
I used to live in the ordinary.
Whenever someone asked me, "How are you?". I answered with a stoic face "I'm fine." A brilliant textbook answer, or so I thought.
To me, every day is the same. I wake up, I go to work, work as usual, go back, game, sleep and repeat.
Life was boring, seriously uninteresting. Almost felt like nothing kept me alive.
My life changed slightly when I quit my job and went for a 3 months break as a voluntary English teacher in Vietnam. Somehow, this journey has enlightened me, showing me the proper way to live my extraordinary life.
I came back as a slightly changed person. I invest a lot more in personal development. I even got a boyfriend who is into self-mastery too.
Slowly, I've transformed into a person perceiving the world in the lens of love, specifically gratitude and curiosity. I no longer see my world as boring, but every day is filled with opportunities to learn new things, to do new stuff, to celebrate events that I made meaningful.
I managed to plot simple tricks that I've been using.
1. Find blessings in at least 5 things every day.
Anything will do, just 5 blessings per day. Very easy to start the ball rolling. As simple as,
- I woke up on time today
- I had a delicious lunch with my friends
- I finished 3 of my most important tasks
- I gave way to a driver
- I smiled at someone
The most effective time to do this is right upon waking up, during meditation/reflection, or before sleep. This is to tap into your subconscious mind that you are grateful of your life.
2. Create Questions First
When your friend, boss, colleague, family, acquaintance tells you something, ask before anything else.
Put aside all of your answers and judgements.
Ask for more details, specifics.
When an event occurs, question "Why?" instead of dismissing it as purely an event.
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein
"Many saw the apple fall but Newton asked why" - Bernard Baruch
With every question, there is a hidden wisdom beneath it. Question it to uncover the treasure of life.
What Tifa was saying?
When you feel bored, find 5 things that you're grateful of and question ordinary things. You might find something new out of the ordinary.
Small Daily Practices is Tifa's mission to invite you to live an extraordinary life. She is not an expert, not a coach, not certified but learning is constant for her. She shares what she has learned in hope that you live your version of extraordinary life.
You will find her past works on Simple Daily Practices below,
Why did she started this?
