I feel lucky in that Im generally pretty easy to please. Give me a meditation, a coastal walk and a Gertrude and Alice chai and Im surprisingly fulfilled in the repetition of it all. But last week I encountered something a little unexpected: boredom.
When Covid first hit it brought with it a wave of creativity as we all adapted to the new reality. There was a helluva lot of baking happening for a while and quite a bit of knitting. Not for me personally, but I found creative projects to keep me busy too. As often happens when destruction comes in, it was a fertile time. But it feels like were well into a new phase now. Lets call it the Covid Maintenance Phase (CMP).
Doing the same thing over and over again can have its place. Habitual behaviours and rituals can be supportive – take twice daily meditation for example. But there can come a point where repetitive patterns start to become the predominant feature of our lives. Same cafe, same route to work, same home-entertainment after work etc. And when this happens things dry up. Enthusiasm, joy, love, excitement, fulfilment all become less abundant. Basically satisfaction levels plummet and things get boring.
At the moment, as our freedoms are somewhat limited, its even easier than usual to fall into these repetitious patterns. Less social experiences. Less holiday options. Less new people to meet. And perhaps a tendency to lean extra heavily on familiar comforts.
Solution?
The ultimate go-to Vedic advice suitable for every challenge we will ever face: Guru Devs famous one word lecture Nivar Tatvam (Go where you are not). Its an appeal to us to try something different. Why? Because new experiences are the cure to boredom. They inspire, enliven and enrich. The changes dont need to be big. A five degree pivot can be all thats required to remove stagnation and restore the flow of abundance.
Here are a few ideas to get things moving:
Switch up your normal cafe. Get a coffee from somewhere youve never been.
Go north rather than south on your morning walk
Instead of crossing the road to avoid talking to someone, open fully into a conversation with them.
Phone a friend out of the blue
Go barefoot
Give one of your plants some love – wipe its leaves, re-pot it even.
With love and Jai Guru Deva
Matt & Mairead