LIFE SKILLS
How to be bored
Confined to our own four walls and with limited activities on offer, we’ve all become more acquainted with boredom than we’d like this year. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing
Words Hattie Parish.
Photograph Stocksy
THE EXPERT
DR SANDI MANN is author of The Science of Boredom (Robinson, £9.99). She’s senior psychology lecturer at University of Central Lancashire and director of the MindTraining Clinic in Manchester which offers therapy for anxiety, depression and trauma. mindtraining clinic.com
We’re betting that you’ve been bored recently. Research from early on in the pandemic found that Italians reported boredom as the second most negative thing they felt as a consequence of isolation, topped only by a lack of freedom. A similar survey of Canadians during the SARS outbreak of 2003 found that boredom was not only the most intensely felt emotion, but the number one reason for breaking quarantine. Many of us view boredom as an uncomfortable feeling we’d rather shake than let wash over us. So we alleviate the condition with on-demand viewing, social media, drinking - the list goes on. But even before recent events, boredom was on the rise.