In writing a comment to another threat it occurred to me that boredom is almost as bad as pain for me. The intensity levels are not the same but the feeling of needing to avoid it is similar.

I know boredom means I am not being distracted and distraction is how I deal with pain (and being uncomfortable). Does my fixation (what I use to avoid what I am really scared of) make boredom = pain? Could this be a relationship similar to anger = strength?

The problem with this idea is anger is something of a negative and you don’t want it but strength is a positive that you don’t want. The theory is if you suppress anger, you are also suppressing a large source of strength. To access that strength you need to embrace the anger and learn to deal with it.

Boredom is a mild negative, pain is a big negative. Part of the growth of a 7 is to embrace pain and learn it is not the end of the world. If a 7 were to embrace the threat of pain then boredom is no longer an issue because it is the tool used to avoid the pain.

Embracing boredom for its own sake would put the 7 in the Now which is something that is on the path for a 7 getting more healthy. But I think that is a tool of allowing the possibility of embracing pain. What else is threatening about the Now?

Boredom and Pain could have a relationship to each other that is similar to the relationship between Anger and Strength but I don’t think it is a good thing to deal with the two pairs in a similar way.