What is boredom?

[Simple_Person]

No, i know what the definition of "boredom" is, but the question is WHAT IS boredom? Still don't understand what i mean?

Well, we all know what boredom is and have experienced it, but i am wondering is this maybe something of the heart? If one often follows their heart, will they experience boredom more often? Or does this have other kind of influences?

Lets talk logic. We now a days can watch tv, we can read a book, we can watch a movie or go cook something, or just take a walk. We have SOOO MANY things that we can do that i cannot even list them all here, but yet we do not "FEEL" like doing it. We know feelings are not logical and we can i THINK say it is rather something of the heart. If that is the case, what can be practiced or done to overcome this "feeling"? To give you as an example. For men to overpower their desires, in the Qur'an Allah(swt) says

"Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do." Qur'an 24:30

So not only looking away makes away is still not good but you also have to think about something else. Which Allah(swt) says "and guard their private parts". When somebody does NOT look, but thinks of it, this same behavior of something trying to control you (desires/lust) will want to overtake you. So indeed that Allah(swt) says "That is purer for them" is having control over your body and behavior.

So in this case, by NOT looking ANNDD..NOT thinking about it, one can protect himself from this.

However now is the question, what can be done to boredom then? What is the cause of boredom? Because boredom you could also say is somehow related to laziness..or am i incorrect in this matter?

ALL THE INPUT IS WELCOME!!

 

[noraina]

Boredom is quite a complex emotion to be honest. I've always thought it is a state of mind, rather than environment or external to us. We can 'choose' to be bored when we refuse to engage with something. Either because it doesn't immediately stimulate us, or because we believe it is beyond our capabilities, or it's something we don't think has any importance to us.

Some will disagree, I know, but this is purely philosophical.

I could fall asleep in a mathematics lesson, when I completed my GCSE in maths I was overjoyed. But it's not because the actual subject is 'boring', it's just because the opinion I have of it is an uncreative, rigid subject (however untrue that is).

So I feel it is a state of mind. We'll be interested in something the moment it stimulates us, is something we 'know' or have done and experienced, or is somehow important or relevant to us.

 

[Simple_Person]

Boredom is quite a complex emotion to be honest. I've always thought it is a state of mind, rather than environment or external to us. We can 'choose' to be bored when we refuse to engage with something. Either because it doesn't immediately stimulate us, or because we believe it is beyond our capabilities, or it's something we don't think has any importance to us.

Some will disagree, I know, but this is purely philosophical.

I could fall asleep in a mathematics lesson, when I completed my GCSE in maths I was overjoyed. But it's not because the actual subject is 'boring', it's just because the opinion I have of it is an uncreative, rigid subject (however untrue that is).

So I feel it is a state of mind. We'll be interested in something the moment it stimulates us, is something we 'know' or have done and experienced, or is somehow important or relevant to us.

But what if you have experienced it and it had stimulated you and is important and relevant to you, YET you are to bored to start doing it again. Is this then the case of we have left boredom and entered the dimension of laziness? Do boredom and laziness have nothing in common as some terrain that both dimensions are covering? Or do they have some terrain that both the dimensions cover? So when do we talk about boredom and when do we talk about laziness?

 

[noraina]

SubhanAllah, thinking hat is back on now - after taking it off after writing it out an essay.

The question would be, is laziness a consequence of boredom, or is boredom a consequence of laziness?

I think they're quite different things. For me, laziness is *one* of the consequences of boredom, but boredom is just one factor among many which can cause laziness.

I enjoy exercising, it's important for my life and I feel quite good after I do it. But some days I just don't feel like doing it - essentially I'm being 'idle' and 'lazy', even though it is not something I find 'boring' in any way.

Like when studying for examinations, I get a lot of satisfaction from that as well, but sometimes laziness makes me procrastinate. I'd say the cause of that is a lack of motivation, not boredom.

They're quite different things, boredom is quite a broad subject, and so is laziness. Altho a small part of them can overlap. Boredom can cause laziness - altho I don't think laziness itself is a cause of boredom.

 

[Simple_Person]

SubhanAllah, thinking hat is back on now - after taking it off after writing it out an essay.

The question would be, is laziness a consequence of boredom, or is boredom a consequence of laziness?

I think they're quite different things. For me, laziness is *one* of the consequences of boredom, but boredom is just one factor among many which can cause laziness.

I enjoy exercising, it's important for my life and I feel quite good after I do it. But some days I just don't feel like doing it - essentially I'm being 'idle' and 'lazy', even though it is not something I find 'boring' in any way.

Like when studying for examinations, I get a lot of satisfaction from that as well, but sometimes laziness makes me procrastinate. I'd say the cause of that is a lack of motivation, not boredom.

They're quite different things, boredom is quite a broad subject, and so is laziness. Altho a small part of them can overlap. Boredom can cause laziness - altho I don't think laziness itself is a cause of boredom.

When somebody is lazy, could it mean that there is chaos in priorities? For example, you MUST study for the exams, but you do not feel like studying instead want to go take a walk. So we speak of being lazy.
In case of boredom, you do not want to do anything at all..nothing motivates you to start doing. So it is not case of chaotic priorities right?

So now is the question, if laziness is a chaos in priorities which would be contradictory to what you said, "Boredom can cause laziness", As boredom doesn't prioritize anything at all and don't want to do anything at all.

So we go back to "what is boredom?". As if we would act that we would now know what laziness is(I will come back on laziness later on).

 

[M.I.A.]

bordom is demoralising.. and can lead to laziness..

it feels almost patronising to try.

you know i once worked at a supermarket chain and took it upon myself to tidy a display pallet..

the assistant manager came along and said.. you dont need to do that.. only do what you have to do..

first time i have ever experienced that.

honestly the first time you move a trolley of milk and it has broken wheels..

f. it..

people used to get offended if you moved the rubbish bins..

hey thats my cardboard!

brings new meaning to the phrase..

you dont have to be crazy to work here... but it helps.


you would hate to be the thick kid that picked the wrong trolley and does things that dont need doing just yet..

most people just picked other members of staff to talk to.

id lol because i got moved from my previous position because the head there said not to look at her..

...there were only three people in the shop. o_0

weird.

you know, blank mind.

 

[beleiver]

Could boredom be laziness of the mind?

Like a waiting room can be boring but if you use the opportunity to remain mindful, use the time to reflect and contemplate, keep the mind active , time fly's by..
Same when doing a mundane unpleasant job, keep your mind active on doing the job as quickly, efficiently and the best to your abilities, your mind has no time to be bored..Let your mind wander from the task at hand and soon enough it will say its bored..

 

[talibilm]

Boredom is from Shaitan who makes to feel its boring and that's trait towards ungratefulness to Allah , imo. Beware, Shaitan tricks us or makes us go to extremes , extreme happy, extreme sad, extreme love , extreme anger etc etc

Ask a patient who is bedridden in an accident to differentiate between those of his times of boredness and his present situation of painess, calamity, he will exclaim that was a heaven and this (calamity) is a hell.

So thank Allah every moment you are living without any accident or disease and try to use the time to get near to your Lord either by reading and understanding or Pondering on the noble Quran, hadiths, or naseeha to those we are obliged to or do social service to your family or Orphans, widows or neighbour etc

(beware,not to opposite sex ;D except if they are very very old, so that talibilm will not get a share of your sins for misguidance )

 

[lifestyle]

boredom is no sense of the value of time!

 

[Simple_Person]

Oke, guys, last night in my bed i was pondering a bit, this is how far i have gotten. Please SHOOT ME RIGHT DOWN if i said something contradictory. I love to have feedback and be corrected when i am wrong, so i can learn.

Oke, here it goes what i have concluded so far.

Laziness and boredom are both symptoms and not really root causes themselves.

Laziness as i mentioned in the other comment of mine is chaos in priorities
Boredom is lack of motivation to do anything. You are even bored for doing nothing at all.

Now if we look to the mind, that is solely based on logic, rationality and reason. Both in case of laziness logic, rationality and reason can very accurately define what is of bigger priority and why. Yet you do not "FEEL" like doing that thing that has higher importance.
Again looking at the mind for boredom, that we approach from from a logical, rational and reasonable point of view, it can be again very accurately defined why certain thing needs to be done and why. Yet again you do not "FEEL" like doing anything.

So both of the cases we can say, the mind is not at fault. FEELING, does not come from the mind. Rather it comes from the heart. So the overlapping part is, in both cases both symptoms "refuse" to do the important matter. Now for me things suddenly got a bit more clearly. When we speak about important matters, i immediately thought of shaytan. Brother @talibilm is right about this one. Because sheytan, tries to prevent us doing the priority #1 stuff or tries to prevent us doing whatever from doing. When we do something, we evolve or we progress in life. When we do nothing, we stay where we are and not progressing. Not progressing is the same as failure or even worse as when somebody does not progress he or she will not in Islamic terms still do sin for not "progressing". In case of laziness and you do not do your prayer, this counts as sin, just like boredom and because of boredom you do not do your prayer. If one progresses but fails in doing the action based on ignorance for example in Islamic perspective, we may do something that is prohibited but out of ignorance we have done it. We make tubah and get back to Allah(swt). What does this say? You did not do nothing, but you did something. Although a sinful something, but Allah(swt) is the all Merciful and accepts our repentance. Besides that, you have gained knowledge and wisdom to not fall in the same sin. Through out the years as one gets older a lot of mistakes have been made and more wisdom has been gained. When we reach our deathbed and sheytan is at our deathbed to led us astray before we die, we have gained a lot wisdom and because of that also become more firm in our faith.

AGAIN SHOOT ME DOWN IF I AM WRONG!!

Now what is the root cause of boredom and laziness then? My conclusion so far is abandoning or loosing up the jihad in yourself. When you suddenly less struggle with your inner self, the symptoms will be laziness and boredom. As sheytan can control you much easier. When i though about those things, i suddenly thought of the Qur'an. Qur'an reminds us CONSTANTLY..again and again and again and again. A reminder is a refresher is making you firm where you are at. When you forget the reminder you suddenly lose the grip to your core and sheytan can take advantage of that. So by having inner struggle, you ponder and you keep a rope around your heart controlling it with your mind. As the FEELING in boredom and laziness are the outcome when your heart is controlling your actions of not doing anything or doing something that is less of an importance. So having the inner struggle, you confirm to the heart, we MUST do X, Y and Z. Every time again.. we MUST do X, Y and Z why? Because of A, B and C. The heart forgets it, but you remind him again of it..we must do.....etc. etc. This makes you firm in what you are doing. If you do not remind the heart every time, sheytan will "remind" the heart of something else that is NOT what was important.

Some people are not bored and have a lot to do. To take for example, people having big businesses etc. However, them not being bored or lazy, is still in the interest of sheytan. As for sheytan what is important is prevent them from seeking Allah(swt) and doing what pleases Allah(swt) the most. Which is following the deen . So, so far we must constantly reminding our heart of doing X, Y and Z because of A, B and C. Get your core what you are doing tawaf around. Just like for example during pilgrimage we circle around the ka'baa in our hearts we must circle around the deen. As that is the core that drives us. We must remind the heart of this constantly and our actions must be again referring to this core. Every day waking up, why do i wake up? because of A, B and C. Why do i pray? because of D, E and F. Why must i finish my exams, because of K, L and M. Why don't do i X? because of Q, R and S.

We might KNOW these things(mind), but the heart FORGETS it every time. So remind it again. The moment we do not remind it, we fall in boredom and laziness as the heart takes our over actions.

Forgive me for making you read this long comment, but please correct me if i am wrong.

Some useful information: http://in5d.com/the-heart-has-its-own-brain-and-consciousness/

 

[Soulfire]

I'm bored (at work right now) :facepalm:

 

[aaj]

Bored is an idle mind not knowing what to do at a given time. Study data shows the less intelligent you are , the easier you get bored.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2009/12/the-less-intelligent-you-are-the-more-bored-you-are/

 

[Indefinable]

Oke, guys, last night in my bed i was pondering a bit, this is how far i have gotten. Please SHOOT ME RIGHT DOWN if i said something contradictory. I love to have feedback and be corrected when i am wrong, so i can learn.

Oke, here it goes what i have concluded so far.

Laziness and boredom are both symptoms and not really root causes themselves.

Laziness as i mentioned in the other comment of mine is chaos in priorities
Boredom is lack of motivation to do anything. You are even bored for doing nothing at all.

Now if we look to the mind, that is solely based on logic, rationality and reason. Both in case of laziness logic, rationality and reason can very accurately define what is of bigger priority and why. Yet you do not "FEEL" like doing that thing that has higher importance.
Again looking at the mind for boredom, that we approach from from a logical, rational and reasonable point of view, it can be again very accurately defined why certain thing needs to be done and why. Yet again you do not "FEEL" like doing anything.

So both of the cases we can say, the mind is not at fault. FEELING, does not come from the mind. Rather it comes from the heart. So the overlapping part is, in both cases both symptoms "refuse" to do the important matter. Now for me things suddenly got a bit more clearly. When we speak about important matters, i immediately thought of shaytan. Brother @talibilm is right about this one. Because sheytan, tries to prevent us doing the priority #1 stuff or tries to prevent us doing whatever from doing. When we do something, we evolve or we progress in life. When we do nothing, we stay where we are and not progressing. Not progressing is the same as failure or even worse as when somebody does not progress he or she will not in Islamic terms still do sin for not "progressing". In case of laziness and you do not do your prayer, this counts as sin, just like boredom and because of boredom you do not do your prayer. If one progresses but fails in doing the action based on ignorance for example in Islamic perspective, we may do something that is prohibited but out of ignorance we have done it. We make tubah and get back to Allah(swt). What does this say? You did not do nothing, but you did something. Although a sinful something, but Allah(swt) is the all Merciful and accepts our repentance. Besides that, you have gained knowledge and wisdom to not fall in the same sin. Through out the years as one gets older a lot of mistakes have been made and more wisdom has been gained. When we reach our deathbed and sheytan is at our deathbed to led us astray before we die, we have gained a lot wisdom and because of that also become more firm in our faith.

AGAIN SHOOT ME DOWN IF I AM WRONG!!

Now what is the root cause of boredom and laziness then? My conclusion so far is abandoning or loosing up the jihad in yourself. When you suddenly less struggle with your inner self, the symptoms will be laziness and boredom. As sheytan can control you much easier. When i though about those things, i suddenly thought of the Qur'an. Qur'an reminds us CONSTANTLY..again and again and again and again. A reminder is a refresher is making you firm where you are at. When you forget the reminder you suddenly lose the grip to your core and sheytan can take advantage of that. So by having inner struggle, you ponder and you keep a rope around your heart controlling it with your mind. As the FEELING in boredom and laziness are the outcome when your heart is controlling your actions of not doing anything or doing something that is less of an importance. So having the inner struggle, you confirm to the heart, we MUST do X, Y and Z. Every time again.. we MUST do X, Y and Z why? Because of A, B and C. The heart forgets it, but you remind him again of it..we must do.....etc. etc. This makes you firm in what you are doing. If you do not remind the heart every time, sheytan will "remind" the heart of something else that is NOT what was important.

Some people are not bored and have a lot to do. To take for example, people having big businesses etc. However, them not being bored or lazy, is still in the interest of sheytan. As for sheytan what is important is prevent them from seeking Allah(swt) and doing what pleases Allah(swt) the most. Which is following the deen . So, so far we must constantly reminding our heart of doing X, Y and Z because of A, B and C. Get your core what you are doing tawaf around. Just like for example during pilgrimage we circle around the ka'baa in our hearts we must circle around the deen. As that is the core that drives us. We must remind the heart of this constantly and our actions must be again referring to this core. Every day waking up, why do i wake up? because of A, B and C. Why do i pray? because of D, E and F. Why must i finish my exams, because of K, L and M. Why don't do i X? because of Q, R and S.

We might KNOW these things(mind), but the heart FORGETS it every time. So remind it again. The moment we do not remind it, we fall in boredom and laziness as the heart takes our over actions.

Forgive me for making you read this long comment, but please correct me if i am wrong.

Some useful information: http://in5d.com/the-heart-has-its-own-brain-and-consciousness/

I agree.

Boredom stems from your state of mind. (And your heart plays a part as your mental state is influenced by your emotions).

Essentially boredom is when your mind isn't active, and physically you're not doing any stimulating.

As brother Talibilm stated Shaytan makes his move and starts his whisperings when we are in this state.

Bored? Watch TV. Bored? Chat meaninglessly to friend. Bored? Eat excessively.

Anything to distract us from the worship of Allaah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So always be Productive insha'Allah. Physical activity is the best way imo.

 

[Simple_Person]

Bored is an idle mind not knowing what to do at a given time. Study data shows the less intelligent you are , the easier you get bored.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gn...bored-you-are/

You know what i mostly disagree with scientific method of the current times? They regard all religions as man made without factual evidence. Everything that religion says, is regarded as false. Which means, also do not include existence of sheytan. When you leave out certain factors, the results will also differ. The biggest scam sheytan has achieved is convincing people that a Creator does not exist, which automatically makes it that he himself does not exist.

Regarding your comment, is also contradictory to the experience it self. When you are bored, there are TONS of things to do, but you do not feel like doing it. Feelings are something abstract and cannot be pointed at the mind. As if we follow the mind, we find all kind of legitimate reasons to do some kind of thing solely based on logic, rationality and reason. Yet again, you do NOT FEEL doing it. This nobody explains ..this feeling. In my previous post, i said something, that based on some pondering explained what i THINK boredom might originate from as it self might be the outcome of something else.

You gave that article, but that was somehow also a question of mine.

Based on what i till now know about emotions (feelings) and intellect is this.

The prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain on the front, is in charge of self control (behavior control(for example anger), and also controlling your desires(lust for example) and processing difficult tasks. This part of the brain, is the LAST part that is fully developed (age 24-26). This somehow indeed confirms it when we look at teenagers. They cannot control their desires and other emotions. They do not have patience and are not yet fully capable to make good plans. They for example spend their money quickly and not thinking about tomorrow.

This part of the brain can further be trained. How? When doing puzzles like for example sudoku or chess. As those kind of games, you have to concentrate and think deeply. It is also active and thus being stimulated when reading. However, watching tv/movies or playing games that ask little of intellect will not activate this part of the brain. It is in idle mode. When i knew of this, i thought of western men and men from the Middle East. In the west people read more although majority of their adult life mostly useless information like harry potter kind of books =_=!. In case of Middle Eastern men, they read less, they don't do tasks that ask more intellectual effort. They watch also a lot of tv. That is why you see that they have less self control. Become easily distracted and have less control over their sexual desires. Also are very quickly angry. This also confirms it, when you looked and listened to elderly men from an village a few decades back. They were very intelligent and wise, compared to many elderly men of today. They watch a lot of tv, while the elderly men of back then ..there was no tv..they HAD TO pondered a lot. Pondering is deep thinking, which means you try to understand something or figure out something. Which also means the prefrontal cortex being active. However, when we look at the current times, there is NO time to ponder. If somebody is not talking to you, you are watching tv, if not tv then listening to music. If not those three..you are a sleep.

That is why the amount of elderly wise men have become A LOT less. I am not saying because i say it. You guys know it yourself. I mean many elderly men have less patience you could say than a average teenager. When the mind is not being further trained, it is like a muscle..it will also become weaker. So weak till nothing of it is left. As if that part of the brain never was developed.

And sub'han'Allah, this is exactly how everything Allah(swt) has made. If it is not used, it will stop existing. If you NEVER walk ..not even stand.. you will lose your muscles. ..only veins, bones, skin and nerves will remain. Look at people in wheelchairs. So are you not planning to use it? Well Allah(swt) will take it away then.

So the more intellectual you are, the more you have self control. However, will this give a same outcome being less bored? Or does it depend on a person? You could say, people who want to be with people 24/7 are easily bored, compared to people who are more often on their own. When you are on your own, you find things to do.

 

[Supernova]

Asalaamualaykum

Its rather a simple affair to understand it from a scientific point but gets complex when combined with spirituality.

The reason i separated the two above is because Science will take it only concerning the human mind, but spirituality will include issues of the heart. So before divulging into the topic one needs a take a stance from which of the two one wants to "initially" understand it. If one chooses to then combine it with the other one may do so.

From a Science academic - one will define boredom simply as a lack of stimulus.
This "lack" comes in two forms

a) Lack of stimuli provided from the environment
b) Lack of self motivation to seek a stimuli
c) Third possible category whereby the stimulus does exist but not recognised by the person but this is a different topic altogether.

Due to the above possibilities, one reaches a state of boredom.

Laziness is one possible consequence of boredom BUT boredom is not necessarily the ONLY source of laziness.

Looking at the boredom from an islamic perspective will be a very deep topic.

 

[Simple_Person]

Asalaamualaykum

Its rather a simple affair to understand it from a scientific point but gets complex when combined with spirituality.

The reason i separated the two above is because Science will take it only concerning the human mind, but spirituality will include issues of the heart. So before divulging into the topic one needs a take a stance from which of the two one wants to "initially" understand it. If one chooses to then combine it with the other one may do so.

From a Science academic - one will define boredom simply as a lack of stimulus.
This "lack" comes in two forms

a) Lack of stimuli provided from the environment
b) Lack of self motivation to seek a stimuli
c) Third possible category whereby the stimulus does exist but not recognised by the person but this is a different topic altogether.

Due to the above possibilities, one reaches a state of boredom.

Laziness is one possible consequence of boredom BUT boredom is not necessarily the ONLY source of laziness.

Looking at the boredom from an Islamic perspective will be a very deep topic.

That is the issue, because the lack of stimuli is branded as the root cause of it. However if we ponder about the feeling it self lack of stimulus is another symptom itself. Yet, because within the scientific approach a full stop is drawn here. As another question can come out of it as "Why is there a lack of stimuli in either three categories?". Atheist for example, do this very often. They say there was the big bang, as if the big bang is the root cause of it self, while looking through religious perspective one can conclude big bang being a outcome/symptom of something else. Even from a philosophical point of view we can say big bang is a outcome/symptom and not the root cause. Or mathematical and scientific approach one can agree with this.

Spirituality by the way, is seen as not something scientific itself. However, science it self stands for knowledge, so everything that is considered knowledge by default should be considered scientific.

Anyways, my intention to open this topic is indeed to find the root cause of it self. I mean what do you have with a simple approach of something and in the end not being able to do anything about it when it might occur or preventing it from occurring. Knowing the root cause, one can protect itself from ever coming in to existence.

So another question is, do certain events have any influence to it? What do i mean with this? Well for example, i have observed times when i slept through fajr prayer (during that time i was a sleep). When that i happened i observed rest of my day and i had way less energy compared to times when i wake up early did my prayer and did not sleep anymore. Even being awake for like 18 hours i still had energy till the last moment of the day.

So by doing something, for example, doing fajr prayer and not sleeping after fajr prayer have anything to do with this? Or night prayer maybe? or is there a combination or is it something completely different?

It is not that i feel bored, but the other day i felt this while haven't felt this for a quite long time.