To me, I think the opposite of happiness is boredom. To be happy, simply avoid being bored.
Alleviate your boredom in a meaningful and creative way!
This is my idea:
Whenever you feel bored, seek to alleviate your boredom as quickly as possible.
To be clear, I don’t mean to say to fill up your day simply watching Netflix, playing games, or distracting yourself on social media or the internet.
Rather, I think the best way to alleviate boredom is to challenge ourselves, to do something creative, to make something, to read difficult books, to workout our muscles, or to workout our minds.
To me, boredom is the lack of challenge, danger, novelty, randomness, chance, and difficulty in our lives. To me, boredom is the worst evil — far worse than suffering, pain, or despair.
I would rather be suffering and in pain, rather than be bored.
Boredom is the worst existential dread —you lose all zest for living and life, and you want to just kill time, to distract yourself, and take away that horrible beast of ennui. I think boredom is the worst modern suffering. I think this is why many of us moderns try to alleviate boredom by “distracting ourselves to death”— through mindless entertainment, games, sex, drugs, alcohol, and other forms of passive self-medication.
What I think we desire as humans is to work on difficult, challenging, fun, creative, and meaningful things.
In practical terms, alleviate your boredom by seeking more difficult challenges in your life.
At the gym, don’t do the same boring exercise and pointless repetitions. Do challenging (and fun) movements, like heavy 1-rep max deadlifts, squats, or heavy dumbbell presses.
Or join exercise classes which are actually fun to you — which allow you to dance, roll around on the ground like a child, and movements you actually enjoy. Exercise which is boring, monotonous, and not fun is like slavery.
As a photographer, make photos that are fun for you, and photos you enjoy shooting. Don’t put unnecesssry pressure on yourself to make the world’s best photos, and don’t feel like you must upload all your photos. Make photos for yourself for the sake of making photos, and allow yourself to be a bit silly when taking photos.
How to alleviate boredom in a creative way
Other ideas:
- Learn how to sketch, draw, or paint. Find inspiration from CREATIVE EVERYDAY.
- Go on a street photography adventure with STREET HUNT! Put yourself in novel and random situations, to find more inspiration to shoot photos of your everyday life.
- Make your own photo slideshows in iMovie, or make your own beats in garangeband. If you need music to add to your own slideshows, download my beats for free.
- Go on a walk. When you’re bored, take your camera for a walk. Walk for the sake of walking and clearing your mind. Treat your walking as a “zen meditation”, and take photos of interesting stuff you encounter.
- Watch great films or cinema on your laptop, and take screenshots of any cinema compositions which inspire you. Start with Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon and 7 Samurai).
Make more art!
Your life is too short to be bored. Always strive to work on fun, creative, and personally meaningful projects. When in doubt, make more art!
Never stop playing and making,
ERIC
PHILOSOPHY
Find more meaning and purpose in your life:
- Money Cannot Destroy Boredom
- How to Find Inspiration in Life
- Why You Must Ignore Haters to Succeed and Win in Life
- An Active Life is a Happy Life
- My Simple Joys in Life
- Never Stop Striving
- How to Motivate Yourself in Life
- How to Be Optimistic in Life
- How to Dictate Your Purpose in Life
- In Praise of a Dynamic Life
- PURPOSE.
- How to Enjoy Life
- Photography Therapy
- How to Conquer Regret
- Take Your Play Very Seriously.
- How to Prosper
- Memento Vivere
- Destroy in Order to CREATE
- Trust Your Body More Than Your Mind
- Make Photos to Make Meaning in Your Life
- Seek Knowledge, Not Information
- The Purpose of Human Life
- How to Overcome Impedence
- Why I Love Death
- How to Be Centered in the Eternal Now
- How to Be Happy
- Why Do You Care What Others Think of You?
- Why I’m Happy
- Why?
- Why I’m So Prolific
- How to Reduce LAG in Life
Personal Philosophy »
Stoicism »
- How to Be a Stoic Street Photographer
- How to Use Photography as Self-Therapy
- How to Free Your Soul From Disturbance
Zen Philosophy »
- How to Be a Zen Street Photographer
- Zen in the Art of Street Photography
- How to Find Tranquility in Your Photography
Life Lessons »
Learn more: Start Here >