Boredom, meditation, writing, and the brain

Mindfulness meditation is a focused attention on what is happening right now, a useful brain gym exercise to receive feedback of information from deeper brain structures in a quiet gentle way. Last night, such a process occurred. A feeling of boredom sprang into consciousness. Not an easy inner state to describe but when it happens I now recognize it, let it play out it's tune, and then reflect on the power of the message.

Some philosophers have written about boredom, but the literature is scarce, say, compared to its polar opposite: burnout. Boredom is a definite mental state with possible underlying brain underpinnings. Cannot find any significant scientific research into its understanding and description. Boredom can paralyze and boredom can motivate... I have experienced both sides.

How do I now respond? Explore some new venture, act on any new and interesting stimulus, or just wait for the feeling to pass over.

May be the signal is to write a book on the brain that explores, inter alia, boredom! Now that is a good idea, or is it? Written a few books before - the first was a slog over a couple of years, the last a review of extensive workshops on stress management to a number of corporates, and lecture series around the world. May be I would get bored with the process soon after beginning?

But then again, the brain is my life - it is my big conversation: my home is covered in books and articles on some aspect of the brain; my professional work is the brain gone wrong and trying to rectify the displacement; central to FOTEOR is the Brain Gym; and neuroscience is exploding with new insights on brain function.

So on balance, writing a book on the brain could be an antidote for boredom; will fill my days and nights with appropriate challenges; and maybe be of practical use to it's readers. Although my first book- A Brief Exploration of Being Human - was no where near a best seller, the joy of readers commenting on some aspect many years later, or knowing it resides somewhere in London, Sydney, Jerusalem, Cape Town, Toronto, New York,Los Angeles, or San Diego is "nice".

So onwards and upwards with the book on the brain - can my brain be a resource to write a book on the brain? and can your brain read my book on the brain written by my brain?, and can your brain enjoy such a book and convince someone else to read the book with their brain? on the brain written by my brain and so on and so forth.

Hey,man,the feeling of boredom has disappeared. I now feel energized and focused.

The power of reframing.

To be continued!!