Challenging Boredom Program (Overcoming Boredom & Restlessness)

Boredom seems innocuous. However, when it gets out of hand, it can wreck quality of life and exacerbate addictions, ADD/ADHD, compulsive behaviors, anxiety, and depression.

Challenging Boredom is a 14-session course aimed at helping you process two types of boredom, which are lethargic low-arousal boredom and restless high-arousal boredom. It then guides you in transforming them into more resourceful and empowering states.

This life-changing course has talks to help you understand boredom, how it manifests, adversely affects life, and is managed, meditation activities to help you observe and process boredom fully in healthier ways, and creative visualizations to instantly transform boredom into energized focus or calm, steady focus. It also has assignments to help you lead a more meaningful life aligned with your values and personal goals.*

* To determine whether you are a good candidate for this course, you can take the Steed 20-Item Scale: Ability To Benefit From Visualization on sale on this site or free on Insight Timer. The higher the score, the more likely you are to benefit from meditation and creative visualizaiton.

Challenging Boredom Program Course Outline

A1 Welcome to the Challenging Boredom Program (2:00)

This is a two-minute MP3 welcome to the Challenging Boredom Program.

A2 How Identifying Feelings Keeps You Energized (Talk & Handout 7:25)
It takes a lot of energy to avoid, suppress, hide, and deny your feelings, frying your brain and making you tired at the end of the day. Learn what research has shown about the value of identifying your feelings. Get a free “Right Now I’m Feeling” list of feelings. You can download and print the PDF and start using it to identify your feelings, conserve energy, and take better
care of yourself.

B1 Infusing Meaning into a Bored Soul (Talk & Handout 14:16)
Learn about the 2 dysfunctional coping mechanisms used when you are faced with boredom, their effect on addiction, compulsive behaviors like gambling, internet-social media use, snacking, and online shopping, ADD/ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and the pros and cons of common intervention approaches.

B2 Letting Boredom Fizzle Out (Mindful Observation & Handout 22:20)
Body scan to locate boredom in your body, answer 10 questions about it from an associated point of view (sample answers provided). Pause the program to jot your answers down, Then process the boredom in your body and watch it fizzle out.

B3 Getting Boredom’s Memo (Mindful Observation & Handout 25:25)

Bring your current state of boredom (even your boredom with facing your boredom) or re-create it. Then, practice associating and dissociating from it using a 3rd person point of view to answer 12 questions about what you observe. The last two questions are about the memo and boredom's response to your attention. Write your answers in a notebook or on a printed-out PDF handout.

B4 Observing Boredom Unfazed (Mindfulness Meditation 30:34)

Use Vipassana (mindfulness+investigation) meditation to observe your breath and boredom. Repeat any emotion every 5 seconds as it arises, changes, and disappears. No judging or resisting. All emotions have memos, all behaviors have positive intentions, and all things are impermanent, so only patient loving kindness matters at the end of day.

B5 Creating a Meaningful Values-Driven Life (Homework & Handout 12:37)
Find and protect real meaning in your life. This session has two charts provided in a downloadable PDF: a decision-driver values
list and an example free-time activities chart. Learn how to use the first to identify the 3 - 4 most important values to you and learn how to create the second. Boredom is a unresourceful state, so it is difficult decide what you do when you are in it. Creating these in advance is a very good idea.

B6 Finding Meaning and Doing What You Want (Homework & Handout 6:52)

A life devoid of meaning and challenge leads to problematic boredom. Learn about a short 15-minute bedtime journal activity. You get a journal form to fill out. It has five prompts to help you recognize meaning you our live, a prompt asking you to set five attaintable challenge fo the next day, and a question how you’d like to feel upon waking the next day. A simple activity with great benefits.

B7 Transforming Drudgery into Energized Focus (Talk & Handout 19:05)
We do a deep dive into lethargic low-energy low-arousal boredom: what it is, how it develops, how it manifests, what coping mechanisms don’t work and which ones do. You will get a helpful protocol leading from low-arousal to energized focus. No need for a notebook.

B8 5-4 3-2 1 Engage (Creative Visualization 39:44)

Use memories, imagery, and imagination to recreate and link a series of resource states that lead from low-arousal boredom to engaged focus. Build up four resource state scenarios: (1) a low-arousal boredom trigger, (2) a dissociated observation state, (3) a making-a-life-saving decision state, and (4) a totally engaged state. Link them and rehearse. Bring an active, playful imagination. You will need it for this rigorous mental-emotional activity. Alternative: Break this long activity up into three sessions: 5-4 3-2 (9:55); 1-Engage (16:03); and Chain together (27:36).

B9 Changing Restless Avoidance to Chill Focus (Talk & Handout 22:40)

We deep dive into restless or fidgety high-arousal reactant boredom: what it is, how it develops, how it manifests, what coping mechanisms don’t work and which ones do. Get a helpful protocol leading from restless, high-arousal boredom to calm, steady focus.

B10 2 4 6 8 Who Do We Appreciate? Grounded and Steady (Creative Visualization 21:13)

Using guided imagery, we establish a grounded and far-seeing state of being and then anchor to blocks and triggers that would ordinarily have us do destructive things to escape. An easy and relaxing visualization that will make in possible to instantly access resource state when you need it, leading to healther behaviors. Enjoy.

B11 Oscar-Winning Calm Tenacious Focus (Creative Visualization 29:25)

Assuming the role of director-actor, mentallly create a 5-frame moving comic strip (storyboard) depicting improved response to boredom. As the director, tell the artists how to draw the comic strip (storyboard). As an actor, enter the strip (show) and get a feel for it. As the director, tell the artists how to revise it. As the actor, rehearse the show until it becomes Oscar-winning convincing. Hint, for this movie, think about what song or musical piece would be great background music to illustrate or support tenacious activity that ends in success.

B 12 Entertaining Boris and Antsy (Creative Visualization & Handout 23:19)

This metaphorical story is a lie-back, relax, listen-to, and enjoy-the-story activity that puts it all togher. Listen like an enchanted child all ears and awe. Don't try to figure it out. Over-analyzing doesn't work. Just imagine and enjoy. This is followed by pep talk on avoiding 4 kinds of demotivating people.