Boredom-Busting Ideas to Try at Home during Pandemic

Sometimes, I feel bored over something. Why do people get bored easily? They can get anxiety or even depression. It's a feeling of unsatisfied or uninterested which can lead to boredom. In some cases, people may complain of boredom when they're uncomfortable dealing with their thoughts. 

James Danckert, PhD, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, found that people highly prone to boredom perform poorly on tasks that require sustained attention (Experimental Brain Research, 2012). A review of boredom research that was conducted in educational settings suggested that boredom is some combination of an objective lack of neurological excitement and a subjective psychological state of dissatisfaction, frustration or disinterest, all of which result from a lack of stimulation.

How to deal with boredom? How can we overcome it?

Let's step to the biggest case that occurs, the COVID-19 pandemic. It has halted normal life. We're facing the coronavirus crisis, it has changed life of millions of people. In times like these, hope can be so powerful. Many people are locked at home, while others are working to help and prevent the virus, and some are struggling. Only hope and spirit can be a powerful force in this difficult times.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on our lives. Many people are facing challenges that can be stressful and overwhelming. It causes strong emotions. Indonesian researchers spread questionnaire to a group of people and some communities, they found that 9% had anxiety symptoms, 4% had some form of depression, and more than 12% of people were suffering stress related to COVID-19.

So, it's a state of mind. We can break this out of it. Below, I have gathered some great lifting boredom-busting ideas to try at home. You can do these next time you’re feeling bored. It's actually fun activities to do at home especially during pandemic. Let's prevent boredom and keep it away. There are 3 fun activities that I love to do at home:

1. Playing musical instruments

I like listening to music and love to play some instruments especially piano and guitar. I used to play violin as well, but the last time I played violin it's been 12 years ago. Learning musical instruments not only sustain and feed the brain, but also improve so many other cognitive and physical aspects of the human body. It's been widely studied and proven that learning a musical instrument improves memory; it not only improves your cognitive memory, but also muscle memory. I play piano or guitar in my free time or when I feel bored. It actually helps me reliving stress. 

2. Reading books

When we read, we exercise our comprehension and analytical abilities. It fires up our imagination and stimulates the memory centers of our mind. It helps recall information as well as stabilize our emotions. The importance of a reading habit strengthens mental muscles. So, don't let the boredom make us down. Some studies proof that reading improves the functioning of the brain, develops theory of mind, increases Knowledge, sharpens Memory. I love writing, so reading strengthens my writing skills.

3. Playing relaxing games

Extraordinary games have been developing in the video games industry for this two decades. This is a huge successful for games developers. What about old fashioned video games? Are they disappeared? No, I don't think so. I still play some old games for refreshing my mind. 

Have you ever played Solitaire games? It's fun and easy. It's not like other games that demand a high level of logical thinking and attention, Solitaire brings about a soft mental activity that works to loosen up the brain and reduce stress without shutting it off. 

Solitaire is a great game for calming the mind because it puts us into a light meditative state. For you who tend to worry and suffer from anxiety frequently, you can try to play it. It gives the mind something to focus on. The game will help reduce tension in our mind. Solitaire has a learning curve. We can see how we improve over time and eventually want to beat our own scores. 

There're some collections on Solitaire games, logic puzzle games, word game, mahjong games, hidden object games, card games, match three games, etc. 

https://www.solitaire.org/solitaire-games/

We often mistake, feeling bored is not the same with feeling empty. When we feel emptiness, this can lead us to looking for something to fill ourselves. But, boredom is linked to control, we can control over something, can't we? Doing fun activities at home especially during pandemic will help us to end up boredom.