[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.

[00:37] How to Never Be Bored Again I got excited as I did my episode on how to never feel frustrated again. Check it out. It's the latest episode I did before the interview. So I alternate. One week is solo shows and one week is interviews. So how to never feel frustrated again was the previous one. And I thought I'd continue this series and I'll do a series of three episode on how to never, et cetera. And I thought I'd do how to never be Bored because I explained in my previous episode that I used to feel frustration a lot and what helped me to no longer feel this frustration all around, how to change your expectations and control and not resisting the present moment. And it's a topic I'm really, really passionate about because I feel that that frustration doesn't help us or serve us in any way. And in a similar, though different way, I used to often feel bored. I have a very high extroverted dopamine crazy personality. For those of you who know the Eniagaram, that's type seven, type seven, wing six, if you want to know the details, for those of you who know Mike Briggs, I'm an ENFP ENFJ. For those of you who are into disk, I'm a high is. All of these personalities say needs stimulation, dopamine, seeing people, activity, fun, freedom. And so this is something that I often had to manage, this feeling of I'm not quite as stimulated as I want to be. And so that was probably also why I sometimes felt this frustration, because I felt frustrated with my everyday life or themes and I wanted more excitement, more fun, more entertainment. And I think it's something that people struggle with more and more and more. And that's because as people get more and more digitally hooked, and most people are, or quite a lot of people are in some way or form to hook to their phone or social media or YouTube, not everyone, but it's quite a lot of people. And the more we hooked to these things, the more we used to that constant flow of fast dopamine. So it's a bit like fast food, olive oil, it feeds you, but it doesn't feel like do you feel great afterwards. And then on the other hand, we want slow dopamine, bit like slow food. We want dopamine that sort of builds over time. And it's not just that fast, quick, impulsive, immediate feeling. And so the more we expose ourselves to this fast, instantaneous one like YouTube or like social medias or any form of quick dopamine, the harder it is to get this slow form of dopamine could be reading a book, for instance. And this is why a lot of people struggle nowadays with reading, because they're so used to that instant reward that reading feels boring. Right? And it's not, but it feels that way because it's not as intense dopamine. Okay, so how can you never feel bored again? There are a few different ways and a few different methods that you can use to no longer have this sense and feeling of boredom. The first one, and this is the obvious place to begin, is that if you're someone that is partly hooked in some ways to technology, it's diminishing this. And this could be through doing a Monk week, as Giovanni Dinsman explains in his book Mindful Self Discipline, which consists in just not being connected to technology for a week. You can also do a monk day and just not connect to tech for a whole day or weekend. But getting into the habit of regularly unplugging from technology is a first step. This is essential because it'll help you to rewire that dopamine homeostasis in your brain and so you won't have that craving for as much dopamine. I understand that this might feel kind of contradictory. I always want to say contradictionary because I think it sounds funny, but contradictory because you might think, wait, you're telling me to never be bored, I have to stop doing the stuff that prevents me from being bored. So if what prevents you from being bored is watching YouTube and I'm saying, well, watch less YouTube, you're saying, well, I'm going to feel more bored. True. This is true. So if some of these activities like scrolling Instagram or YouTube help you to cope with boredom, it's true that on the moment when you eliminate them for a day or week, you will feel more bored. But we're thinking long term here. We're playing the long term game. You'll feel more bored that day? Maybe. But long term, you'll get used to a different type of dopamine, which will make it a lot easier for you to not be bored when you're just sitting in a park or reading a book or doing any form of activity that's less stimulating because your brain will have learned to deal with less stimulation. So this is why that first step is super important. Yeah. On the moment it's not super fun and enjoyable, but you'll also find you relax more, you feel less stressed and that you'll notice that that fast dopamine though, it sort of keeps you entertained, it's not really satisfying. And so if you eliminate that, you need to replace it with activities that you might enjoy more actually. Like going a whole day on a hike or again reading a book or playing board games or something that's a little lower in terms of simulation and you might find more enjoyment in that. So that's the first step really disconnecting unplugging regularly, the more the better. So if you want to unplug half the day, you just stay 4 hours using technology the rest of the day. Not fantastic, obviously for most people, work, et cetera, that's not realistic. But maybe on holiday you can do a lot more unplugging. And I know in my case I tend to use my phone very little. I check WhatsApp messages once or twice a day and I call my family and that's pretty much the only use I have for my phone. So it's totally possible to have a no phone life and still be a human that functions in today's society, right? We don't need to be scrolling Instagram or YouTube or watching Netflix all the time to be connected in today's life and world. That's the first step. The second step is to see what is really enjoyable in each moment. Because what is boredom? Boredom is when you're craving a certain stimulation that you're not getting once more. It's similar to when I talked in frustration about your reality, doesn't meet your expectations, so you want something and you're not getting it. So if, for example, me, as a high extrovert, I want to spend a whole Saturday evening with friends and my friends cancel, I'll feel well, maybe frustration, boredom, impatience, disappointment, maybe. But part of it will be boredom because they'll be like, oh, now what do I do? That was the plan. That's the fun thing. Now what do I do? If instead you start to realize all the possibilities and all the beauty of everything there's around you, you start to feel less bored because you're not craving something else to replace it. I know this can be hard to grasp if you haven't yet experienced it. The easiest way to do this is to look at everywhere and everything around you and within you with curiosity. So instead of thinking oh, this is boring, my friends have canceled and I have no plans now for a Saturday night. Looking and thinking how this is interesting or this place looks different, going for a walk on your own, seeing, just observing everything as if you were an alien who just landed on earth. Because I feel that sometimes we get so blazzy, we get so bored with the luxury of life, right? It's amazing to be alive. And if you haven't realized this yet, it might be time to open your eyes again, a look and realize that you're feeling, that you're smelling, that you're seeing. We've just gotten used to it. But that doesn't make it less amazing, right? You could be living in the most amazing palace in the world. You get used to it, doesn't mean it's no longer amazing. And life is kind of like this. You're living in the most amazing palace that's being alive. That's the palace. And you've forgotten. You've forgotten to look at all those lovely views and the people and the smells. So just remember, right, that you never need to feel bored because life in itself is as much stimulation as you'll ever need. You don't need a screen, you don't need a phone. You don't need all this extra stimulation in life because you're alive, right? And this sounds obvious that I'm getting emotional, but it's just I feel so sad sometimes that we forget this and even myself, obviously. And one moment in which that really helped me to not feel this boredom is that I went to a silent meditation retreat just for three days. So I'm planning to do a ten day one also. And during that meditation retreat, we couldn't read, we couldn't talk to one another, we couldn't do any of these things. And after that you realize that, wow, just being able to read is pretty good stimulation and pretty fun. So by bringing down again your expectations, by unplugging totally and rewiring your brain to get used to less dopamine, to less stimulation, the slightest thing, the song of a bird's, color of the flower, can be stimulation. I recently interviewed my grandmother, for those of you who saw this, who's 99 years old, I interviewed her on my podcast and still on my YouTube channel also. And I know that with my grandmother, she'll stop as we're walking to observe one flower and literally talk about it for five minutes. I'm all into mindfulness and stuff, but even I think, okay, it's just a flower, let's move on. But she's right. She's right because that's how A, you never feel bored, but that's also how you appreciate life, by pausing and literally looking at the flowers. Okay, so this might be far fetched, but I hope that you understand what I'm trying to say, which is a, decrease that constant dopamine unplug, and B, start to be curious about what's going on around you, the people around you, life around you, and embrace it. And even in those moments of boredom, be curious about what you're feeling inside and where this is coming from. And through that feeling of curiosity, that will really help you not to feel bored ever, ever again. So number one, unplug. Number two, meditate, because let's just fit it in, it's good. And number three, be curious. Be curious and open about life itself and remember how special it is. Even in the hard moments, even in the trying moments, you're still alive. If you're watching this, unless I'm able to communicate with ghosts through my YouTube or my podcast, that's amazing. But otherwise, probably if you're listening this or watching this, you're alive. And that in itself is a cure for boredom. Okay? So thank you for tuning in. I hope this makes sense. Would love to read a comment or review to see how this has helped you. And I hope that you never feel bored and that you appreciate the magic of life and existence. Thank you for tuning in and wishing you a truly magical and wonderful day.

[13:12] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Be Show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback, so let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.