Mabuang ako sa kaaya! These are the words you hear from
others within this situation. Most of them come from the young ones. Since
almost all the municipalities in the Philippines are in a community quarantine
(with the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon), people are limited with
their movements and physical distancing is also encouraged to limit the spread
of the dreaded virus.
Boredom is a common
feeling. Feeling unsatisfied by an activity or uninterested in it, can lead to
boredom. Boredom may occur when you feel energetic but have nowhere to direct
your energy. It may also occur when you have difficulty focusing on a task. Boredom
is marked by an empty feeling, as well as a sense of frustration with that
emptiness. When you’re bored, you may have a limited attention span and lack of
interest in what’s happening around you. You may feel apathetic, fatigued,
nervous, or jittery (Giorgi, 2016).
Since the pandemic is
escalating and we are being ordered to stay at home, our routines suddenly
changed. We also found limited work to do since we got so familiar with our
previous tasks we now see the present situation as boring. We have less things on our hands.
According to Jessica
Lebber (2013), boredom can be a destructive feeling, leading people to zone out
in meetings and classes–and in some cases, even to alcohol or drugs. But in
certain circumstances, boredom can also be a force for good, becoming the spark
that starts a creative process or leading to greater self-reflection.
This is the time when
the individual must confront his or her inner person by dealing with the new situation
and discover new possibilities by reflections and creative diversions.
In late March 1845 Henry
David Thoreau went to Walden Pond, a sixty-two acre body of water a few miles
from his parents' home in Concord, Massachusetts, and selected a spot to build
a house. He eventually wrote his solitary thoughts and experiences which would
later become one of his masterpieces:
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of
them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I
had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and
earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two
months.
Over the course of
the next three hundred-odd pages, Thoreau outlined his philosophy of life,
politics, and nature, laying the foundation for a secure place in the canon of
great American writers. Although Walden enjoyed only moderate success in
Thoreau's lifetime, his experiment at the pond would spark considerable
interest in the years to come especially in dealing with oneself and
introspection.
Little things make us
happy, and little things can drag us down. One “little thing” that can be a
source of unhappiness is boredom. I’ve found that the more I focus on my
boredom or irritation, the more I amplify that feeling (Rubin, 2010).
Feelings of boredom
and being busy are subjective. You can’t look out in the world and claim it is
busy or boring. To say these feelings are subjective is obvious, but that
misses a key point. The real problem is quality. Being engaged, neither busy or
bored, happens when your attention is focused on high-quality activities.
This is the time when
one could discover the stories of their family members: their
experiences, their dreams and their fears. A person can also develop a hobby
which can allow the time to pass in a creative or physical manner. There are
books to read and music to listen. Also, there are areas in the house to clean
and there are areas to enhance.
M.Farouk Radwan, MSc
says: It’s your life style that should be changed and not anything else. Do you know why do you
feel bored often? It is because you rarely find something interesting. And do
you know why you lack interest? Because you have no major goals to go after!
The more goals you have the more tools you will need to accomplish them and the
more you will find these tools around you and so you will hardly feel bored. Boredom
comes from within and not from your surroundings and that's why the only
effective way to deal with boredom is to change yourself.
We do not know where
this pandemic will lead us. We still have two or more weeks to observe and wait
whether the virus will be contained or not. We might be the cause of the spread
if we are going to go out and gratify ourselves. There might come a time when
will be FORCED to stay at home if it entails public safety.
Therefore, we might
as well know how NOT to get bored.
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