Boredom

Aerial yoga has been going swimmingly! The last couple weeks have been nice, as I get to drive to my class in the daylight and that makes me really happy because the longer days (mainly due to daylight savings) makes me feel like summer is so close! I like that the class goes in patterns where we might do a pose once or twice in the weeks prior but it’s mainly to build on more challenging poses. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what one of the poses we did was called (and I can’t even find a picture on google) but it’s essentially standing up in the silk and balancing and it’s actually one of the scarier poses in my opinion! While searching for this wacky pose- I came across some other really cool poses that we haven’t done that I really want to try though- so here they are!

A number of points and findings from the Martin, Gayno, & Stew (2006) article can be found within these lyrics. The first concept that came to mind is that boredom correlates strongly with depression. The first few lines of the song relate to this concept by stating

“I keep hearin' you're concerned about my happiness
But all that thought you're givin' me is conscience I guess
If I was walkin' in your shoes, I wouldn't worry none
While you 'n' your friends are worried about me I'm havin' lots of fun”

So basically his friends are worried about him being depressed from boredom but he believes he has plenty to do, which brings me to my next point. The article discussed certain traits that people who are either never or rarely bored possess. These traits include having a positive outlook on life, involvement in many interests, an ability to adapt to the current situation, and a well-developed sense of humor. In this song, the singer discusses some of his interests that take up his time such as playing solitaire, watching television, and counting flowers on the wall. Because of the tedious and uneventful nature of most of these activities, I think the singer seems to have a positive outlook on life as he believes he always having plenty to do. The last point that I thought of is that the singer mentions smoking cigarettes as an activity to pass time, as well. This statement contradicts what the article presented, as this is a characteristic of people who are more prone to boredom and I believe he fits the personality traits relating to a person who doesn’t get bored.

This reading regarding the concept of boredom really reminded me of the concept of flow- as boredom is something that is discussed within the theory. The model of flow states that “as challenges exceed skill one first becomes vigilant, then anxious. As skills exceed challenges, one first becomes relaxed, then bored.” I thought this was a very applicable part of the theory to compare to the boredom article because the findings in the boredom article really support this concept within flow. An example used was a woman who felt very bored at work because she worked a very unskilled job. This is exactly what the concept of flow encompasses and is believed to be why person falls victim to boredom, which is why I felt the two concepts were so comparable.

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