Bored out of my mind

[LookingInward]

(If this is not the right sub-forum for this post please move it.)

So I'm currently in a break from my Master’s degree before I choose a thesis topic and start going hard on that. I work a part-time job (~8h per week), and besides my studies I have no big obligations. I am bored out of my mind.

Disclaimer: I suffer from depression and anxiety issue and I’m still sorting my medication, so it is possible my boredom with everything is a symptom of the diseases, not of my lifestyle. Anyway, I decided to ask this forum for ideas on how to break out of my boredom without spending much money. To pass the time I’ve been mostly: reading about software and privacy, and also playing shooter videogames. Another thing that is important to note is that I’m currently living in a small town, so it’s not practical for me to go to meetups to meet and talk to strangers (sometimes that kindles my excitement, even though I’m kind socially anxious).

Please help me prevent a death by boredom

[Frita]

I have found that outdoor recreation (skiing, biking, walking, hiking) full up my time, improve my mood, and maintain my fitness. Bonus if it’s sunny with blue skies! One can do this stuff alone or with others. If wanting to engage with others yet having no available company, listen to a podcast.

[jacob]

Does reading about software, privacy, or engaging with FPS bore you?

Are you familiar with the flow model? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psy ... Conditions
Where would you say you are on that chart?

[ertyu]

I would say if a significant portion of your hobbies are about reading (taking information in), consider adding something which is different in one or more significant aspects - for instance, something where your body is engaged but your brain is not, or something where you output information (are creative) instead of taking information in.

[jacob]

Like putting information out maybe...

[Lucky C]

I mean you have to be working on/towards something but the options are virtually limitless! One nice thing about Flow is that you can potentially be happy trying any new field as long as you match the difficulty level to your skill level. For example, I knew nothing about brick masonry but recently had to patch a hole in a chimney. The chimney was still structurally sound and it didn't need to look pretty so it was a perfect beginner's task. It was also a very short task so it did not seem intimidating at all even though it was the first time I was mixing mortar, buttering a brick, etc. The end result was sloppy but at least as good as I expected it to be, so I got a lot of satisfaction out of it and I certainly wasn't bored.

I guess there are fewer opportunities for small random tasks like this if you don't own a house, but there certainly must be opportunities in your small town to volunteer, meet new people and work towards some sort of goal together. Otherwise there are plenty of cheap hobbies out there. Again the key is don't try to take on too big of a task. Just start with the tiniest goal and momentum will take over. It's that first step of getting off your butt and starting something new that's the hardest, as long as you don't pick something too difficult.

[sky]

Walking is a good low cost activity. You will need good shoes. New Balance shoes are good for walking and pretty reasonable in price. Walking is healthy and therapeutic to the mind. I just got back from a 5 mile walk through the dunes on Lake Michigan. I did have to drive 4 miles to get to the park, but that allowed me to hike in a natural area in stead of an urban setting near my home.

I have a budget of $100 per month for fun stuff. Usually I take the cash and hide it away in savings to build up a bigger amount.

Sometimes I get into gear tripping mode, thinking that if only I could buy *****, then all of my dreams could come true. A strategy that I learned on this forum is to research and find the best item on Amazon, then add it to a wish list. That seems to satisfy my need to collect neato things without having to own them. If I ever need them, I can order them and have them in a day.

Sometimes I get frustrated that I can't do things due to not enough money. I would like to hike the Appalachian Trail, but that costs too much. Plus I am sort of a caretaker for someone and can't leave for months at a time. When I look at the options available to me, I can find trails with free camping closer to home which I can hike for the price of gas to drive there and food, which I would buy anyway. So I start out frustrated but when I look at my options, I was wearing the ruby slippers the whole time.

I like to build things. I consider myself to be an inventor. I often design things that I can't afford to build. Sometimes building a model is better than building the real thing.

I like to research things. The other day I was reading about Babylonian mathematics. They used a base 60 system and no one knows why. Even the Romans wrote about theories why the Babylonians used a base 60 system and they didn't know for sure. Some say that the base 60 system came from astronomical observations and that the sun moves 720 solar diameters through the day. 720 = 12 * 60. Perhaps I should learn to read cuneiform to dig further down this rabbit hole.

Too much screen time can cause depression and dissatisfaction. The cure is physical activity, walking or bicycling work well.

[fiby41]

Try cultivating a combination of the arts:
1. Singing
2. Playing a musical instrument
3. Dancing
4. A combination of singing, using musical instruments and dancing
5. Writing and drawing
6.The Art of Tattooing
7.Adorning an idol with flowers
8. The art of spreading flowers on a bed or on the ground
9. Coloring fabrics, nail and body with colors from plants
10. Fixing colored glass tiles on floor
11.The art of making a bed
12.Producing music by striking glasses of water
13. The art of storing water in reservoirs
14. The art of picture making and decorating
15. Making rosaries, necklaces, garlands
16. Tying turbans
17. Stage playing
18. The art of making ear ornaments
19. The art of making perfumes
20. Proper care of jewels, decorations and ornaments
21. Magic (sorcery)
22. Manual skills
23. Cooking (culinary skills)
24. Making combination drinks and flavored drinks i.e.– lemonades, sherbet etc
25. Tailoring and sewing
26. Making handicrafts e.g.– parrots, flowers etc. from thread
27. Skilsl to solve riddles, puzzles and covert speeches
28. The skill of Antakshari (a singing game were one must start with the letter with which other person’s song ended)
29. The skill of imitating natural sounds
30. Reading, chanting and intoning
31. Mastering tongue twisters
32. Skills at martial arts (the skills to use sword, stick, bow and arrow)
33. Skill to reach logical conclusions based on given facts
34. Carpentry
35. Architecture
36. Knowledge about gold, silver and gems
37. Chemistry (knowledge of properties of materials)
38. The art of coloring jewels or beads
39. Knowledge of mines
40. Gardening
41.The art of cock fighting (getting cocks, quail or rams to fight and make the fowl/animal victorious)
42.Teaching parrots or starlings to talk
43.Applying perfumes on body and hair
44. Understanding of code language
45. Spoonerism (purposefully interchanging position of letters of words while speaking)
46. Knowledge of languages
47. Knowledge of making flower chariots
48. Knowledge of making mystical graphics, spells and charms and ways to avoid spells
49.Mental exercises
50. Composing poems
51. Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabulary
52. The art of impersonation
53. Impersonation of materials i.e.– make common things appear fine rare substances (make cotton appear to be silk)
54. Knowledge of gambling
55. Using mantras (enchantments) to take away others’ possession
56.Skills in sports and games
57.The art of social conduct, paying respect and sending compliments
58. Knowledge of war, arms and army deployment
59. Knowledge of gymnastics
60. The skills of knowing a person’s real character from his conduct
61. The skill of reading and composing verses
62. The skills of enjoying arithmetic puzzles
63. Making artificial flowers
64. Making images with clay

[ertyu]

65. Origami
66. Embroidery, knitting, crochet, quilting, etc traditional western fabric arts
67. Clothes mending
68. Furniture repair/upcycling
69. Whittling things from wood
70. Tarot and other "fortune telling"


@fb I find myself oddly intrigued by number 55 in your list can you direct me to some resources lmao

[chenda]

21 and 48 I would also like to hear more about.

[7Wannabe5]

@fiby41:

Great list!

71. Plant breeding
72. Copyright mining
73. Making tiny insect like robots
74. Studying soil micro-organisms
75. Creating highly accurate dollhouses based on former residences
76. Garden train construction
77. Sauna construction
78. Large scale sculpture celebrating the nude male form
79. Year of all the projects in 1930s Boy Scout manual
80. Snail farming
81. Stump inoculation
82. Cozy mystery writing
83. Innovative vending machine design
84. Invent a board game
85. Deconstruct a dumpster
86. Rock hunting

[fingeek]

It is said that boredom comes from lack of energy, not lack of things to do. Find a way to cultivate and conserve your energy and you will find yourself dragged out of boredom. Exercise and meditation are great things for this, as is "just do something challenging, however small" to build the momentum.

I find myself in boredom/drained quite often this last few months and I put it down primarily to have slipped out of my exercise and meditation routine

[ertyu]

i still want to know how to take others' possession using mantras, sounds like the last ERE skill I'll ever need

[LookingInward]

Thanks for the answers and sorry for "abandoning" the thread for days. I get trapped into a perfectionist mindset and just delay coming here to communicate.

I do like to walk from time to time. Get groceries, run some errands, go to a cafe with the best food I've ever eaten (and I'm one of those people who find the whole food culture boring). But sometimes walking just makes me more depressed because I see it as a sign that my life is so boring that I have to come up with ways to waste time. It triggers my existentialist anxiety (rationally I know it doesn't make sense, but we aren't computers).

I've always been a person who has a hard time doing things. I dream about starting X or Y but its very hard to actually do it. My psychiatrist says its a side effect of depression in some people.

I do spend a lot of time indoors and looking at screens. I'm now doing research for my thesis and I have to study for exams. Also I get bored easily and I find the smartphone or laptop much better prospects than going outside looking at birds. I also has to do with my (unhealthy) obsession with knowing more than the next person. At least now I recognize it for what if is.

My energy levels are also not very high. Reading and studying take up most of my energy so I have little of it left to pursue other possible interests. I did start lifting weights and doing some simple exercises while I watch a show. Better than 0 exercise I guess. I don't know what exercises I should do, I don't know when I should increase the weight ,if I should do it for longer (less intensity) or shorter (more intensity). I don't know what kind of other exercises I can do from my home. Honestly its a boring topic to me but it is the only way I found to force myself to exercise.

@fiby42, you do have some explaining to do on some points in that list .

[daylen]

Appears you are spending too much energy studying. You must not be an INTP.

The problem may be alleviated with better study methods. To help you I need to know what you are studying for your masters degree and more about your personality type. So far I have noted that you are not Ti dominate, possibly a Te user, you have spatial skills, and that you were in differential equations.

Spatial skills implies Se-Ni. Getting bored and depressed because you feel like you are wasting time implies Te-Fi. Your masters is more likely in engineering as opposed to economics, physics, or computer science given that you were in differential equations (assuming it was ordinary). Mechanical engineering is my best guest.

Questions:
1. What math courses do you have to take?
2. What are your most challenging classes (most studying)?
3. Do you code? .. can you?
4. Have you considered a study group?
5. Have you read "How To Solve It" by Polya?
6. Have you watched 3blue1brown on youtube?

[chenda]

Do some flying lessons.

[LookingInward]

@daylen

I'm doing a Master's in Financial Mathematics. ODEs, PDEs, SDEs, Measure Theory, Stochastic Calculus (SC), Numerical Methods, you name it. We have it all

Honestly I was never good at memorizing what each letter meant in the MB system. I also hear it's not consensual among people who study those things. So most of what you said just flew over my head

If spatial skills means what I think it means, I'm terrible at it. But please define the term more precisely.

Regarding the most challenging classes, its hard to say. Maybe Measure Theory and SC1. Too abstract. But with time it becomes less arcane. The key is to think of math like I think of programming (which I find very easy to pick up BTW): I don't need to know how to build from scratch every underlying the tool I use. I need to solve the problem at hand and know at least some of the limitations of my tools. Slowly accumulate more "Lego pieces" you can work with.

A studying group only works for me in the following format: I learn as most as I can alone and then ask questions to the group. Many times its even easier to just email the profs. Right now I'm starting to work on my thesis so there is less common ground to talk to colleagues. I am also repeating some classes because my psychological problems left me largely disabled for a large portion of 2019.

No and yes to your last questions.

Today I felt bored most of the day so at night I decided to come to a bar with my gf. I think I'm lacking more social interaction and I hope that later this year I can move to the city and start engaging with more people.

No matter how much I try, I just don't feel like doing anything in particular. At least I'm quite productive these days. Better to be a productive zombie than a useless zombie (the latter just makes things worse as time goes by).

Sorry for all the rambling guys. My therapy is only scheduled for next week

[daylen]

Looks like the analytical path minus functional analysis (algebraic and discrete mathematics are much different). Looks like you are already implementing algorithms and playing with computational models? This is the best way to gain an intuition for how analytical functions behave (involving limits).

I am just going off what you said in the other thread.. "I am also a spatial thinker bth." .. so what did you mean there?

The general definition is something like the ability to apply and compose geometric transformations mentally.

[daylen]

No wonder you are depressed.. you are studying financial mathematics at a university..

[LookingInward]

@daylen I like the things I'm studying, they are quite engaging and there is a lot of depth to it.

If I said that about spacial thinking I probably meant that if I have a mental picture of the math (or any other topic) it's easier for me to understand and memorize it. I don't deal very well with text for example.