I am Bored

This is a question I posed to myself one day when I said to myself “man, I’m bored!”

So, what’s boredom?

Boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in the activities presented to them (Wikipedia)

i.e. when you have nothing to do, or the thing that you do is not interesting because it’s either too easy or too hard, then you “switch off” and become bored.

It’s obvious that boredom isn’t a good thing for ProductiveMuslims, but how should we fight it?we can find or what I call “distractions” that “keep us busy”. For example, at home, you’ll either be watching TV, surfing the net, listening to something, talking on the phone, or reading a novel, the moment you stop yourself from these stuff..you’re bored! .

The problem with using these “distractions” is that they are temporary. The moment you finish with them, boredom kicks in. So how do you fight boredom properly?

Firstly, understand that boredom comes from the lack of proper utilizing an amazing blessing Allah gave us: free time. And this is common among people, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said: “There are two blessings in which most people are in great loss: 1) Good health and 2) Free time.” So, boredom is a sign that we’re becoming such people whom the Prophet mentioned.

Secondly, boredom comes from lack of focus on what is your purpose in life. The moment you realize that you’re on this earth for a purpose, and you identify that purpose within the different aspects of your life, you’ll not get bored! Because you’ll always try to fill your time with what will help you achieve that purpose. Let me give you an example, say you’re at the doctor’s clinic, waiting for your turn. Naturally, you’ll sit there and be bored. But the moment you realise that “hold on a minute” I’m a Muslim and my purpose in life is to worship Allah, and the best way for me to worship Allah in this moment is to Remember Him or read some Quran, hence you fight boredom and make great use of your time!

Here’s some tips to fight boredom:

• Identify your purpose in Life, for Muslims, this is easy: our purpose is to worship Allah (in the holistic and specific sense, i.e. worship in the sense of praying, fasting, charity etc, as well as in everything we do, we should do it for His sake, include eating, sleeping.etc)

• Understand that free-time is a blessing and it should be utlizied properly. This could easily be achieved by simply scheduling something during your free time. e.g. If you know you have nothing to do this weekend, schedule a productive activity, book yourself to a course, do something productive in that free time and you won’t get bored (or regret wasting time!)

• If you’re bored because something is too easy – find a challenging task to do. If you’re bored because something is too hard – ask questions and research the answers until you understand. There’s nothing that’s beyond comprehension, you just need to exert the extra effort to absorb it.

• It’s OK to relax and take time out. But as long as that doesn’t lead to boredom. I don’t want you to burn yourself out. But even with your relaxation, you should schedule them, so you know when you’re supposed to relax. It might sound weird to “schedule” your relaxation time, but try it. Sit down tomorrow and schedule EVERYTHING, including your relaxation time. When it gets to that time, you’ll feel so good and not guilty at all, because you’re now relaxing, knowing it’s the time you’ve given yourself to relax and nothing else!

• Avoid temporary distractions: TV, randomly surfing the net for no reason, talking on the phone for no reason, all these things will keep you “occupied” but in the grande scale of things, are they really beneficial?? Also, normally, we feel worse or even more “bored!” after them and look for something else to distract us thereafter.