I recently read an interesting essay by Adam Phillips, "On Being Bored".
It made me wonder how boredom might relate to type. Do you think boredom is a symptom of poverty of imagination? Of inactivity? Or frustration with reality?
I think it's sometimes a little of all of them. Sometimes those three causes can create a feedback loop: I have little imagination because I have nothing to do and because I have nothing to do, I also feel frustrated with reality; through my frustration I find myself unable to imagine things to do which leaves me with nothing to do which feeds my frustration. You see?
That's what I think boredom is, a temporarily unbreakable cycle of frustration, lethargy, and apathy.
Are you bored often? Are you more bored by having a lot of (boring) stuff to do, or not enough? How does it manifest itself? And how do you overcome it - do you use distraction techniques? Or do you focus on deeper issues?
Not really. Usually, yes. If I don't have something with deadlines, I will likely just sit and forget about what needs to be done and feel quite bored since I have no outside force driving me. When bored, I get tired. I feel like sleeping or hibernating. My mind feels like its wrapped in a fog, and once the feedback loop of boredom starts, I find it difficult to focus on anything that would otherwise break the loop. Normally boredom passes on its own, but if it doesn't, it ends up leading to further lethargy and eventually depression. I can generally overcome a bit of it by finding a book I've enjoyed, going outside, and reading in the sun or exploring. For some reason being in the sunlight for a few hours every other day for a few weeks helps me feel properly balanced. I do not know why this is. (I suppose then, boredom usually comes in the weeks where I am at home with no work to do and because of this, I tend to stay inside more, which only exacerbates the problem.)
Does boredom serve a purpose, like depression - can it make us question the pattern and progress of our lives to-date?
Does it make us shake ourselves out of a rut? What other purpose might it serve?
I agree with your first question here. I do think it's a sign of destructive patterns, though I think boredom is related more to destructive intellectual patterns whereas depression is related more to destructive emotional patterns (and it is possible to be both bored and depressed, I think the two can feed off each other).
As for the second question, I don't think so. I don't think it's any kind of driving force that helps you, but it is an indicator that something is wrong and measures should be taken to resolve the issue.