REPOST: "BORED TO DEATH?!"

No joke, folks!

In an article in the International Journal of Epidemiology, experts concluded that the more bored you are, the more likely you are to die early!

The researchers analyzed questionnaires completed by more than 7,500 London civil servants 20 years ago, ages 35 to 55. The civil servants were asked if they had felt bored at work during the previous month. The researchers then tracked down how many of the participants had died by April 2009. Those who reported they had been very bored were two and a half times more likely to die of a heart problem than those who hadn't reported being bored.

Dr. Christopher Cannon, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University and spokesman for the American College of Cardiology said if people's boredom was ultimately linked to depression, it wouldn't be surprising if they were more susceptible to heart attacks; depression has long been recognized as a risk factor for heart disease. Cannon also said it was possible that when people are bored, dangerous hormones are released in the body that stress the heart.

"Boredom is not innocuous," said Sandi Mann, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire who studies boredom. She said boredom is linked to anger suppression, which can raise blood pressure and suppress the body's natural immunity.

Yo! Are you listening? Or are you bored?! Well, if you're bored, it's not because this information isn't interesting. Its because you're sitting on a bunch of suppressed feelings that this article is tweaking and you don't want to hear it. Or feel it!

As Alexander Lowen so brilliantly catalogued in his studies on "the language of the body," we know that what's going on inside ourselves emotionally manifests physically in our bodies. "He has a stiff upper lip," "She's a pain in the neck (or ass)," "He's a tight ass," "Get off my back!" "I have a lump in my throat," etc., etc. We remind ourselves through our verbal expressions that our emotions and our body are connected.

In other words, "Bored to death" is a formula, not just a colloquialism.

Boredom isn't a feeling, see? It's an "affective state" caused by the suppression of feelings. And trying to cover up your boredom with excessive activity or drama isn't going to work, either, by the way. No. People who die prematurely from "Type A" stressed-out living are suffering from the same disease as those who die prematurely from boredom. The disease is suppressed emotions.

Get yourself into some penetrating self-work, people. There's no other way. You're not going to be magically rescued from your boring jobs, from your dead marriages or from your addiction to Facebook. You need to get a life! For real. And yes, I know. I know. I say this so often on this blog that it's now... boring me to tears!