Turning Boredom Into Opportunity

October 17 2021

Ironically, I’m sitting in bed, about to delve into the notion of rethinking boredom and disappointment, on what used to be my most dreaded part of Melbourne’s seemingly endless vortex of lockdowns; Saturday night.

For the most part, Melbourne’s lockdowns have been quite manageable for me; I’ve had a good routine, things to keep me motivated and driven and an appreciation for the forced relaxation and reflection time. Yet, come Saturday nights, I can’t help but feel exponentially more bored, sad, frustrated and simply yearning for nights out with friends and new adventures.

However, this is not the case anymore. Today, before meeting a friend for a good old lockdown walk and talk, I had some spare time and decided to put on a podcast. Earlier in the year, I discovered Alexis Fernandez’s podcast channel, ‘Do You Fucking Mind?’, and needless to say, immediately became obsessed; it might even be the reason I have managed to stay positive and driven throughout the entire lockdown. If you’re looking for humour, relatable life advice and cool neuropsychology brain facts, this is the podcast for you (but seriously, check her out!).

The episode of choice today was called ‘Feeling Stagnant? (Lockdown Edition)’, and these are the stand out messages that I took away: (keeping in mind that they also relate to life’s non-lockdown moments of apparent stagnation):

1. There are always going to be things that are out of our control, Covid or no Covid; we can either choose to be swept up in the negative thought spiral of fear, stress and disappointment, or acknowledge that we can’t control everything and instead focus on what we can control, including our own thought patterns, reactions and behaviours.

2. It is really important to find new hobbies, interests or skills to learn that do not relate to our productive occupation; sometimes work can cause a lot of stress and we can feel pressured, so it’s worthwhile separating this from our source of leisure and creativity in order to ensure that it is a truly joyful experience.

3. Even when something that we were looking forward to, such as a holiday, can’t go ahead, for whatever reason, there will always be other things we can do instead, no matter if they are less thrilling. Everything we do takes up a slot of time which technically could have been allocated to doing something else; we should try to put aside initial disappointment and perceptions of being bored and having “nothing to do”, and instead look at cancelled, postponed or changed plans as an opportunity to accomplish something else.

So, with all this in mind, what I once perceived to be a moment of ostensible boredom and negative, maladaptive thought patterns, I have now turned into a moment for personal leisure and overall opportunity to do what truly makes me happy.