Steemit Engagement Challenge - S6W2: What I Do When I am Bored

Good day, Steemians, I'm super excited to be here again this week and drop my first entry for this week's engagement challenge, I trust you are doing great too. Today I will be sharing the topic of the contest organized by this community which asked to discuss "What Do You Do When You're Bored". Go with me as I share with you what I understand by boredom, its causes, and how I do overcome it.

Boredom can be defined as a feeling of being uninteresting and unsatisfied with some things. It can also be described as the absence of activity (not having anything to do) or getting tired, uninterested, or unsatisfied with our activities and having the desire to explore or try new things.

It is said that being idle at times does not make some people bored as long as they are content and satisfy being idle but being idle without satisfaction leads to boredom. Boredom comes with feeling empty, lonely, frustrated, and weak, when you have no interest in some things, not feeling happy and unsatisfied. Many causes could make one feel bored and I will be explaining such causes below.

There are many causes associated with boredom and I will be discussing them below.

Not doing work or things of interest: When one is not doing things, work that he or she loves but only doing what he or she was offered maybe because there is no opportunity at his preferred place of speciality/interest and only accepts any other job to cater for himself/herself and family. Not doing what you love makes one loses interest in doing the one he was being offered or not have interest at all, because there is no passion and enthusiasm for it and this causes boredom.

Poor Attention: People that can not focus or channel their attention on the task they are doing for some hours without being distracted tend to feel bored and frustrated when spending a longer time than normal on the supposed task. Lack of good diet and sleep can contribute to poor attention because being hungry and sleepy can cause distraction.

Lack of Control or Choice over activities / Autonomy: When people have no power or control over what they did and they only do things they were told to do regardless of whether he/she has an interest in doing such thing or not. People who have no control over their activities and life tends to feel bored and frustrated as they do feel like a machine being programmed to perform only some things because their interest is not being considered.

Tedium and Monotony: When one has been repeating the same tedious job for a while without trying anything new, the person gets bored of the repetition and hence has a strong desire to try or experience new things.

Lack of self-awareness: When one does not discover his/herself interest and hobby, such an individual will not be satisfied with what they are doing or not contented with and boredom will surface.

Lack of mental Stimulation: Not having activities that can help to improve one's brain and enrich the mind easily gives way to boredom, the activities can be listening to music, game, reading, and so on.

Lack of Inner Resources and Self-amusement: When one does not have resources provided by the mind or capabilities which can be used as support such as amusing things which he/she can use to pass the time and fight loneliness, some people are hard nut which finds nothing amusing in what others see such as watching or listening to comedy, music, amusement park, nature and many more and can not discover their amusement, such individual do feel boredom.

Lack of Connection and Close relationship: Not having anyone to share your idea, thought, excitement, achievement, and experience with such boredom.

Being bored is something everyone experience and we all do some things to tackle and overcome boredom before it gets too much and disturb our good life. I will be explaining what I do to overcome boredom.

Anytime I feel bored, I do feel sad and will start thinking but not get overwhelmed by the boredom, I used that period to do what I love and such things are:

Reading Novel: I so much love reading novels, and whenever I feel bored and take out my novel or read it from my phone, I do feel satisfied and forget the boredom.

Playing Game: Playing games, especially candy crush saga which comes with different tasks is another way of killing boredom, as I will feel challenged taking up each task and will be happy and satisfied finishing it.

Listening to Music: I'm a lover of music, especially gospel music sang in my local dialect, I love gospel songs written in English too. So listening to that music when I feel bored does shut me out of the boredom and charges me with new energy and happiness.

Talking to my family: No matter how bored I am, talking to my family does take me out of the boring moment because they will give me listening ears, advice, and encourage me.

Going to some lively places: At a time when I feel bored, I do prefer going to lively places like an amusement park, and watching kids playing around and feeling happy do make me forget my boredom, at times I do use the time to visit my friend's place, cracking jokes, playing and going out together do help overcome my boredom.

As easy as it is to get bored is as dangerous as it is when boredom was not overcome at a certain time because it can pose a threat and serious issues to the person's state of mind, body, and health. Examples of side effects of boredom are:

Depression: When one feels too bored and does not get any satisfaction in and outside of what he/she is doing, such a person might end up being depressed after experiencing boredom for a long time.

Addiction: People who experience long-time boredom might resolve into getting a solution that will soothe them but for a temporary period, and such solutions included getting addicted to drugs, alcohol, and gambling, being addicted to the above mention might cause harm to their health and well living.

Aggressive behavior: People that do not feel happy or satisfied with their job or activity do tend to become angry and frustrated which can lead to the passing of aggression to another person.

Low Work Performance: Because there is no zeal or happiness in what they are doing, they don't put in all their effort and this leads them to not perform excellently.

Boredom just as I said is a feeling of not being interested or satisfied with the activity one is doing or absence of doing what one loves. Everyone must at a point feel bored, maybe because we have been repeating the same thing or being too idle and not being contented with it, to avoid boredom leading to depression, anger, and addiction, we must ensure we overcome it on time by doing what we love, try new things, explore, engaging in amusing activities and so on. Thank you all for reading.

I invite @ruthjoe, @lhorgic, and @goodybest to participate in this contest.