Focusing on the present may reduce negative emotional symptoms related to boredom.
Boredom proneness, a feeling of restlessness, weariness and constraint, is associated with psychological and physical health symptoms. Researchers in Hong Kong recruited 186 adult Chinese residents outside shopping malls in 18 districts to complete a questionnaire package. The mindfulness state of acting with awareness, or focusing one’s attention on the present, moderated the relationship between boredom proneness and stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. The tendency to use words to describe one’s perceptions, without interpretation, moderated the relationship between boredom proneness and depressive symptoms only. However, boredom proneness predicted negative emotional symptoms only at low levels of dispositional mindfulness. The researchers suggested that being able to focus one’s attention on the present may help to reduce boredom’s unpleasantness, while mindful labelling of experiences may reduce interpretive ruminations that lead to boredom.
doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.001
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