Top Ten Things to Do When You're Bored

A little boredom comes to most everyone. Sometimes there's a cause for it - dead end job, illness, cabin fever due to weather - but there's almost always a cure!! Try these tips and see if they help!

1. Believe it or not, boredom often comes from a physical source. If your body is depleted of water or nutrients, you can feel out of sorts - bored, mildly depressed, even achy! The first thing you should try when you feel bored is a large glass of water or fruit juice and a light, nutritious snack like cheese & crackers or a piece of fruit.

2. Boredom can also arise if you're not getting enough sunlight, fresh air, and exercise. If you're feeling bored, try taking a brisk walk or doing a few crunches. Then move on to something productive! You could also go fishing, bird-watching, or swimming!

3. If you're bored and perhaps have been cooped up in your house or office, plan a mini-vacation for yourself. Take a day - or even part of a day - and go to a park, the mountains or beach, a museum, or some other place that soothes your soul. Plan out where to go and what you'll do online. You might discover some forgotten niche in your own city!

4. Help someone. Boredom sometimes comes from an inward focus. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit a homebound elderly person, go out and pick up trash in your community, or work in an animal shelter.

5. Broaden your horizons! Visit the library and check out some books. Take a course at the community college. Research a topic online. Watch some educational shows on TV.

6. Do something new! Plan a meal from another culture, or something fancy. Watch cooking shows on television or get a unique cookbook. Many ethnic dishes are easy and inexpensive to prepare. Try your hand at a new craft or hobby. Many stores now offer classes so you can learn to knit, do collage, or renovate your home.

7. Re-arrange a room! If you must, do it on paper first. But really, you don't have to! Just start pushing furniture this way and that. Or just move your pictures around to new locations. If you're really, really bored, slap a new coat of paint on the walls of a room. Nothing brightens up your house like fresh paint!

8. Do something with children... yours or a friend's. Take some kids to McDonalds, or go make mud pies with a four year old. Go to a park and swing on the swings and play on the slides and teeter-totter.

9. Dance. Put on some music with a good beat, pull the curtains, and dance with all your might. Sing too - loudly! Who cares what you look like or sound like! If you're really bored, take voice, music, or dance lessons.

10. Be silly. Get some silly string and shoot it at people. Make a smile from an orange segment and go to WalMart. Stick straws up your nose. Dye your hair raving bright green (if it's light enough you can use kool-aid to do it!) and wear it in a single ponytail... on top of your head. Sing either the Barney or Lamb Chop theme song until you giggle. Eat green eggs and ham. Go and try out for American Idol. Read funny stuff online. Have a tea party.

You may be bored now... but you don't have to stay that way!