(BTA) Eugênia?
(EE) I am here. Ask me questions.
(BTA) About what?
(EE) About boredom.
(BTA) What do you think is important to say about it?
(EE) That there are two basic etiological plausible hypotheses for the formation of boredom. First: an escape from the duty of consciousness. Those who stray from the flow of their own soul can feel so discouraged that, by not correctly identifying the impulses of the soul, assume that this is boredom, which, in fact, has nothing to do with dispirited (literally: “lack of spirit”), but a circumstantial discomfort of the psyche, therefore related to a certain concert of events that displeases the psychological structure of the individual, not necessarily constituting a misalignment with the core of the being. Second, boredom may be the result of a variety of attacks, of negative mental or energetic expressions, from inside or outside the individual, and in what regards the outside, coming from embodied or disembodied agents. In these cases, it constitutes a test of persistence. An opportunity to exercise determination.
(BTA) Would there be, apart from these two main causes, any other reason for the formation of boredom?
(EE) Yes. The current consumerist civilization is extremely driven to hedonistic factors. Whoever lives the peak of pleasure will necessarily have to submit to the lower levels of sensations, and obviously, a series of psychological repercussions accompanying such bottom bound oscillations of the psyche. Therefore, the collectivities of today are, to some extent, infantilized. They want to live in a perpetual emotional roller-coaster and evidently this is impracticable. The world is not an amusement park, as assumed by these creatures, but a school-workshop, as it has been said by our spiritual friends, since the beginning of the spiritist codification.
The adult world understands the lack of motivation and inner excitement in certain moments as natural, without this affecting the fulfillment of duties and agreed responsibilities. That happens because the adult mind is self motivated, extracting from internal principles, from inner values and goals, the determination and willingness to self-discipline, for an ideal greater than the feeling or desire of the moment. This element, in fact, the power to postpone gratification, is one capital item that defines today, “emotional intelligence”.
(BTA) How to distinguish the types of boredom, according to their cause – would this be important?
(EE) It is important for the individual to know whether he is included within this mass of emotional children of today, in order to make arrangements to self-educate, discipline oneself and, thereby, create the foundation for an effective adult life. And then check if he is aware of his higher life purposes, to follow them relentlessly.
In fact, Eugênia, there are people who read the despondency of a moment, as a sign that they should not go on with a particular project or an immediate activity that they’ve been involved with, as if there had been a break of the flow, of the alignment with the forces of Life.
Often, this actually happens. And that is why one must know oneself in depth, in order to make subtle essential distinctions, as this one, with accuracy.
(BTA) What do you suggest for people to overcome boredom?
(EE) Getting to know themselves more and, consequently, motivate themselves at the right times, as also dishearten themselves from doing what must not be done.
(BTA) Anything else to say about this matter?
(EE) Not for now. I’m satisfied.
(Dialogue held on April 13, 2004.)