Is Boredom Painful?

Oh, the ennui of it all!
There’s nothing to do. Nothing I want to do. My brain hurts. Why can’t something happen? Why am I spending my life like this?

I’d say it hurts. Maybe not physically, but definitely psychically.

The corporate website I’m working on says YES.

If you have a life where you have the luxury of boredom, I envy you.

I’d love to have a life without anything to do. At least I can do what I want and be free.

Boredom is a waste of time.

I wouldn’t know.

I would think the lack of anything new or challenging would eventually hurt you. Don’t think anyone has actually been ‘bored to death’ tho.
I never seem to be bored with Tv, books, magazines, pets, family…there’s always something to keep my brain cells active.
(what little I have left, that is!

Whenever a kid would whine in class that they were bored
my old grade school teacher would ask them:

Only boring people get bored. Are you boring?

I would love to have my life slow down enough to be able to answer this question! Not being bored can be painful. I know that to be ture!

i think the true definition of boredom would be if you were sitting in a prison cell without any books, magazines, nothing to write on or with, nobody to talk to. time would go very slowly. it would probably be painful in a way.

it should be, if you’re in prison.

Dea: I think making sure I didn’t drop the soap or get shivved would more than occupy my time.

Nimis…they deserve whatever they get!!!!

ture = true doh!!

Boredom is subtly painful. It is not painful today or tomorrow. It is painful in retrospect when at some point in the future one looks back, and recognizes a lost potential. A lost potential to know oneself.

Boredom in my experience requires a lot of medication, as if one can feel the moments sliding away never to return.

One person in a bare room has so many things they can do, since the key to thier existence is there in the room with them.

If you were trapped in a bare room with someone you admire; perhaps the president, an American Actor, a Great person from a different ERA what would you ask them? What would you discuss?

You have to realize that you are just as important as them, your thoughts just as important. Thank you for the interesting question!

Nora: if i were trapped in a bare room with someone i admire, i wouldn’t be bored.

@jca my point was that you should admire yourself, so you should never be bored. If you are bored with yourself then you don’t know yourself very well. Does that make sense?

Most people who have answered this question either do not understand exactly what boredom is or cannot relate to/comprehend what the more severe stages of boredom are. People say in passing that they are bored, but boredom is a state of disinterest such that you could be ‘doing things’, yet the mind pays no attention to your surroundings and in effect aches through a lack of activity. You watch life pass by as an observer. Boredom is almost like a disease. How do you know if you truly are bored? You will feel tiredness and your brain will hurt. It can be damaging to you and you are more susceptible to depression and self focus if you maintain this state for yourself. My advice would be that you may have lost touch with what you want. Try to understand what it is that you really want to do in each passing moment. Get involved in something meaningful. Change your environment to some degree.

I don’t think boredom itself is “Painful” persay… What I think of it as a condition that can be painful, is within those moments of being made aware of the presence of the ego, less normal distractions, we realize what and who we are, as well as what and who we are not. This can be “Painful.” But it is an old premise which states the value and worth of the act of being subdued for that very purpose. It is why people avoid “boredom” at all costs. Not really or usually because they are motivated, or busy, but I find habitually the bussier and more productive people make themselves appear outwardly with intent to do so, the harder they are running away from themselves and the condition of boredom with causes a forced sense of self recognition.