One who meditates or follows a spiritual Path, need never again be bored or lonely.
Boredom and loneliness are both conditions of our mind. When our mind is not actively focused, or is engaged in some repetitive activity, it becomes dull and we say we are bored. Our spiritual heart is ever eager and ever new: when we are in our heart, we are ever flowing, flowering, flying, smiling: there is no room for boredom or loneliness. The first hint of boredom is an alarm bell, a sure sign that we have allowed our consciousness to drift away from our heart, to be captured by the mind’s rigidity and stagnation. Take this alarm seriously, and immediately look for a way to open and expand your heart: remind yourself of seven things you are grateful for; sing a spiritual song; chant a mantra; consciously breathe in peace, love or joy; recall any deeply moving, enchanting, awe-inspiring or thrilling moment; imagine you are a child playing your favourite game; consciously see all the goodness and beauty around you.
Loneliness is a close cousin of boredom; a sense that we are incomplete without the company of others, that derives from the mind’s isolation and lack of connection. When we are in our mind, we can be lonely in a dense crowd, for the mind is its own prison and prisoner; while a full heart can never be lonely, even in a remote cave, for our heart is one with all of divinity.
Though loneliness and boredom both arise from the barrenness of the mind, we can take both as cries from our heart, yearning for space and nourishment. The solution for both is the same: quieten the mind, dive into your heart – boredom and loneliness are banished.