In Defense of Boredom

I think it is a dying art, this thing called boredom. What is it, anyway? To let the mind just be, without lights, without stimulation, without a constant need to read and react to?

Growing up, I waited in lines, without a phone, without the distraction. I simply waited, and my mind would wander to stories, to ideas, to things other than me. Yes, I would get fidgety sometimes, shift my feet and sigh. But then, I’d begin to think, deeply about life and writing and my family or flowers…whatever.

What has become of the wandering mind?

Do you allow it to meander any more, to places unknown, to thoughts yet to be formed? Do you stop and look up? Or out? Or to someplace beyond you? Your body? Your mind?

Don’t pick up your phone. Try that. What does that feel like?

I have. It’s something new…a revisiting of the old, maybe.

Perhaps it’s why my writer’s block has been so bad these past years. I never get a break of the mind. I never give myself a break from news or feeds or conversation.

Always on.

Always moving.

Always focused on the screen.

Always doing, never being.

So as I peel myself away from phone and internet and Facebook, I’m meandering more.

I’m looking up.

Making eye contact.

Connecting with real people.

Smiling.

Breathing.

Embracing the boredom.

Loving the silence and quiet stillness of just being…being still and wandering.

And I feel refreshed and rejuvenate for the first time in ages. I think I’m on to something. Phone down, life up, and laughing with joy with my newfound friend called boredom.

Call to Action: Put your phone down a little bit more each day. How does it make you feel?