What is it about?
It seems that no one can stop thinking when they are not engaged in some task or entertainment, and even then they may mind wander. I propose that constant thinking is being used by most people to avoid negative feelings and particularly unpleasant bodily sensations. If no task or entertainment is engaging and mind wandering is not satisfying enough, people are stuck with feelings and sensations they would rather avoid. The mild mental pain they experience in this situation is usually described by them as boredom. Learning to process these feelings instead of avoiding them is the key to reducing boredom and the need for constant distractions, including obsessive thinking. Techniques of mindful meditation can help in this regard.
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Why is it important?
There is a great deal of interest among psychologists lately in the topics of boredom, mind wandering, mindfulness, and interoception (the awareness of bodily sensations). The theories I propose in my article tie these phenomena together and make a case for the importance of learning to attend to our body, including feelings of muscle tension, visceral upset, and general unease. Otherwise, we tend to attribute these sensations to our physical or social environment, and therefore miss the opportunity to reduce unpleasant feelings and increase our appreciation of the positive aspects of our situation.
Perspectives
My understanding of the role bodily sensations play in producing feelings of boredom are informed by my 50+ years of daily meditation and my experiences with teaching people to meditate, including in the Mindfulness class I teach at NYU. To better appreciate the theories I espouse in my article, set a timer for ten minutes and sit comfortably with eyes closed in a quiet room. If you begin to engage in a particular train of thought (e.g., future planning; reliving a past experience), stop yourself as soon as you notice that, and attend instead to whatever is the strongest sensation in your body. Return to a bodily sensation whenever your mind wanders away. Did you feel like stopping this exercise before the ten minutes were up? Did you stop? In any case, recall what your mood was like during the exercise. Then, read my article.
Dr. Barry Howard Cohen
New York University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mental pain, boredom, and diffuse nociception., Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice, November 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/cns0000405.
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