why is boredom so scary how to deal with boredom
Watts suggests boredom can feel scary because, underneath it, we may be facing our own mind and the possibility of anxiety with nothing to distract us 37. He also says boredom can become frightening when life has been made so safe, self-conscious, and over-controlled that it starts to feel “not worth living at all,” and that this kind of self-consciousness produces “perennial dither and doubt,” which we call anxiety 10. In that sense, boredom isn’t just emptiness; it can expose fear, restlessness, and the habit of needing constant stimulation 210.
As for dealing with boredom, Watts recommends not trying to fight it or instantly escape it. Instead, he says you can “bore into boredom and watch it” 3, and “simply watch everything going on, without attempting to change it in any way, without judging it without calling it good or bad” 7. He also suggests that one way to face fear is simply to face it directly, because trying to avoid it often makes it worse 15.
So, in his terms, the way through boredom is:
- observe it closely 37
- don’t immediately judge it or resist it 7
- treat it as something to explore rather than panic over 3
- face the fear underneath it instead of projecting extra “bogeys” onto it 15
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