10-Minute Mondays: 7 Ways to Turn Boredom into Growth while Moderating Alcohol
Welcome to Journey to the Sunny Side, the podcast where we have thoughtful conversations to explore the science of habits, uncover the secrets to mindful living, and of course, your own mindful drinking journey. This podcast is brought to you by Sunny Side, the number one alcohol moderation platform. And if you could benefit from drinking a bit less, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial. I'm your host, Mike Hardinbrook, published author, neuroscience enthusiast, and habit change expert.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, and welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays. And today we're going to dive into something that hits us all at some point, especially when we start to cut back or moderate our drinking, and that is boredom. We all sort of filled that gap when alcohol isn't filling our time or our routines, and then suddenly we don't know what to do with ourselves. But here's the thing about boredom. It isn't the bad guy.
Speaker 2:It can actually be one of the most valuable tools for growth if you know how to handle it. So let's talk about how to reframe it and turn it into something that works for you instead of against you. So now we're going to get into seven ways that you can deal with boredom and turn it into growth. And the first one is reframing how we think about boredom. A lot of all habit change comes down to a mindset shift at its core.
Speaker 2:So most people see boredom as negative. But here's the thing, and the reality about boredom is that it's just information. It's our brain's way of signaling that something needs to change. It's telling you, Hey, what you're doing isn't cutting it anymore. But now instead of getting frustrated by this, why not maybe try something like getting curious?
Speaker 2:What if you use boredom as a chance to check-in with ourselves? So instead, try something like asking yourself, why am I feeling this way? And then sit with that. You don't actually have to always be in a reactive state. So boredom actually can be a red flag that you're doing something that isn't aligned with where you want to go.
Speaker 2:So if you're filling that time with something that you actually want to avoid, and then you're getting bored without it, then you realize that you have to fill that time with something that is more aligned with where you are headed. And so that's where the growth starts. And you got to let it be that signal as something for realignment, and that's what we're moving towards. So number two is emotional regulation skills. So now that you've done all of this self work, whether it be in mindfulness practices, you're journaling, maybe you're working with the therapist, of course, you're using Sunnyside to stay on track, and you've got all these tools to manage your discomfort.
Speaker 2:And believe it or not, some of the same emotional regulation skills that you use to manage your stress, to manage your anxiety, even your cravings can also work for boredom. So what I mean is that instead of letting boredom become overwhelming or reaching for a drink, which of course we don't want to if it isn't planned, or some other kind of distraction, instead, as I said before, don't react, observe it, Sit with this discomfort that is distraction. And it's just like any other feeling. It is going to come and go. It will pass through you.
Speaker 2:And don't judge it. Don't analyze it too much. You just want to be in control of your reaction. So remember, boredom is an opportunity to practice those skills of mindfulness of dealing with discomfort in real time and how you can deal with it. Number three is avoid time killers.
Speaker 2:This is probably a really hard one for many people, especially in our distracted society, and a smartphone in your palm, in your pocket at any time. And whenever you get bored, you know, you reach in your pocket. You're in a line. You reach in your pocket. You're sitting on the couch, and maybe the TV is not on.
Speaker 2:Before you know it, you're still scrolling, and it's thirty minutes later. But here's the thing is that social media and similar outlets that would kill our time is a trap. So while scrolling might seem like the easiest way to avoid boredom or cure it, which it doesn't, it's actually just temporarily numbing you out. You're not fixing the underlying discomfort of not filling that time with something that you're wanting to cut out. So you're just pushing it off.
Speaker 2:And most of the time, you just feel worse afterwards. Have you ever just sat there on your phone forever and then feel like, ugh, you know, I need to get off this and put this down. And you need to be engaging in things that are more meaningful to fill that time. So before you reach for the phone, ask yourself, is this really going to make me feel better, or am I just avoiding the real issues and finding something meaningful to do with my time? So number four is do something productive.
Speaker 2:So let's get practical. One of the best ways to break out of boredom, if it doesn't sound glamorous, is to do something that you've been putting off. It could be chores or simple stuff around the house or maybe some little project that you've had sitting in the garage. And I know that chores is nothing glamorous and feels boring in itself, but at least you're getting some reward at the end for accomplishing something. You're not just sitting there either boring yourself by being bored or wasting time doing something that isn't meaningful, that isn't productive, that doesn't make you feel good when it's done.
Speaker 2:Because what this does is when you do little chores, little tasks, you're getting a little bit of momentum, a little bit of a positive dopamine hit at the end. So think about it this way: If you're going to be bored, you might as well be bored and productive, and that's what this point's about. Okay, number five is try something new. And in my opinion, this is probably one of the best ones, especially the reward tied to it, but it's also one of the most difficult ones for many people to get started because they think they have to do these giant things. But oftentimes we're bored because it's ourselves telling us that we need a fresh challenge.
Speaker 2:We need to change up our routine. And when we changed and removed something, that's our cue to fill that time in with something else. And as I mentioned, it doesn't have to be something huge. You don't have to start training for a marathon. You don't have to take up a new giant hobby, like you weren't an artist, now are you an artist.
Speaker 2:It can be something simple, like a new routine, a new morning walk, or a walk after having dinner. Maybe before dinner, instead of making dinner quick, you get out a recipe, you spend some time, maybe you go to the store and even pick out the ingredients. So you can start with small projects that have a little bit of flavor to your life, that add a little bit of breakup of the routine, that maybe you get some enjoyment from. And these little changes are going to shift our perspective and give you a little bit of a boost in this time when you're trying to fill and not be so bored with things. Here's something to think about.
Speaker 2:This is research I pulled. So the research shows that boredom can actually spark creativity, and in fact, a study from the Academy of Management of Discoveries found that people, when they engaged in simple, repetitive tasks like boring chores, they were more creative after. So what I take from that is basically this is your brain's way of clearing out space in your mind for new ideas to have more and new, meaningful enjoyment in life. Okay, great. Next one.
Speaker 2:Manage your schedule. And this is actually something that I have to work on. It's a continuous thing I drive my wife crazy about because I'm kind of fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy. But if you're finding yourself bored every single day of the week or a certain time on the weekend or a specific day, you probably need to adjust your schedule to account for that time, to plan for it, and not find yourself in the moment saying, I'm bored. What can I do?
Speaker 2:I think that's pretty predictable. We know when we would typically go out and have drinks. And so if we want to fill our time during that previous time of alcohol related activities, If we don't do that, we're going get bored. So here's what we need to do. Instead of letting those turn into idle time, we're going to plan something meaningful.
Speaker 2:So it could be exercise. It could be listening to a podcast that you enjoy. It could be scheduling a call with a friend. You know, you could start, as I said, cooking. There's so many things.
Speaker 2:There's groups that you could join. You could get that dusty bike out of the garage. You can take an art class. As boring as that might sound to some people or challenging to others, it might, you know, strike a chord. So tons of places like Facebook have groups and meetups.
Speaker 2:There's meetup websites. There's tons of places and resources. If you just put a little bit of effort into planning what you wanna do, that would pull you out of this thing that you call boredom, even though in step one, we reframed it as not being a negative thing. But the more you can take control of and plan for these times of boredom, the better you'll be equipped to get through them and actually come out on the other side with a level of growth. And then the last one is set a ten minute timer.
Speaker 2:This is a little hack that will get you over the hurdle of getting started. And so many of us will, and myself included, build things up and not want to get it started because, oh, you know, it's not going to be fun or it's going to be too hard. I can think of a million social events that I committed to, and then I really made myself suffer before I went because I didn't want to go. And then once I was there for ten, twenty minutes, I had a great time. And I just had to get over that initial period.
Speaker 2:And so that's what this is all about. So pick a task that you commit to for ten minutes. And the reason this works is that we're committing to one task. Sometimes when we're bored, we pick something up without much thought behind it and we start it, we don't like it, we choose another thing, so we're bouncing around. This is saying, no, I've got to commit to this ten minutes, to this one task, and see it through.
Speaker 2:And most of the time that boredom fades away, and the task actually does become engaging, and it's going to push you through that initial resistance that I mentioned. And this really works for pretty much anything. That's the thing. It's just ten minutes. It could be a book that has been sitting on your shelf, like the ones behind me here, and you just open it up.
Speaker 2:Even if it's 500 pages and you've never wanted to crack it, you only have to commit to ten minutes. Same with like maybe going and doing some exercise or maybe some other chore that you've been putting off. But all you have to do is commit to ten minutes and many times that'll break the boredom. Okay. And here's the final thought.
Speaker 2:And the key takeaway, if you made it to the end here and you're listening to me, is that boredom isn't something to run from. It's a moment of realignment for priorities. We can reframe our actions and it's gonna challenge us to grow to be more creative also. So the next time boredom hits, instead of reaching for your phone to get distracted or maybe just sitting there, I'm bored, I'm bored, I might as well just give in, invest in an opportunity for something that's meaningful because on the other side of it, you'll probably be glad that you did. And I pulled this quote from Dorothy Parker and it says, So boredom can push you to explore new things, realign your values, and take challenges that you've been avoiding.
Speaker 2:So thanks for hanging out with me on this ten minute Monday. Let's keep growing together, and I'll see you next week.
Speaker 1:This podcast is brought to you by Sunnyside, the number one alcohol moderation platform, having helped hundreds of thousands of people cut out more than 13,000,000 drinks since 2020. And in fact, an independent study showed that Sunnyside reduced alcohol consumption by an average of 30% in ninety days. And as one of our members shared, Sunnyside helps me stay mindful of my drinking habits. It's not super restrictive. So if I'm craving a glass of wine with dinner, I just track it and I move on with my week.
Speaker 1:If you could benefit from drinking a bit less and being more mindful of when and how much you drink, head on over to sunnyside.co to get a free fifteen day trial. You'll get access to everything that we offer, including tracking and planning tools, coaching from our experts, a vibrant community of people just like you, and the motivation and advice to stay on track with your health goals, all with no pressure to quit. That's sunnyside.co.
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