I often hear from clients that boredom feels depressing and extremely uncomfortable, where productivity might be a shinier more “healthy way to be”. We all move through periods of great discomfort and boredom, whether we are bored with the foods we eat, people, work, town, etc or if we get bored when training, running or other feats of endurance the ingredients of boredom and discomfort are INGREDIENTS FOR GROWTH. So seek it out, honor it when it shows up, and please try not to avoid it with distraction.
A playful jumble of words to inspire you to chose boredom:
Ode to Boredom (Patron Saint of Becoming)
O Boredom,
you slow, wide yawn of an afternoon,
you blank page with the audacity to stare back —
how misunderstood you are.
They call you lazy.
They call you wasted time.
They swipe you away like a notification.
But you —
you are the quiet gym where imagination lifts heavy things.
You are the long hallway where courage learns to echo.
You are the soil where restlessness turns into roots.
When the world goes still
and the mind begins pacing the room,
that is when the secret doors appear.
A melody half-hummed.
A question that won’t leave.
A strange idea that might just be brilliant.
Distraction, your mischievous cousin,
you glittering magpie —
you dart and dazzle and tug at sleeves.
You scatter crumbs of curiosity across the floor.
Yes, sometimes you lead us in circles.
But sometimes you lead us sideways
into wonder.
Together you conspire:
Boredom clears the stage.
Distraction trips over the curtain.
Growth walks in laughing.
But heed this small, loving warning:
Beware the Brick.
That smooth, glowing rectangle
that hums with endless elsewhere.
The Brick promises relief from the ache of empty minutes —
but it steals the ache that makes the pearl.
It floods the quiet gym with noise,
fills the blank page with borrowed thoughts,
trades your wild question
for someone else’s answer.
The Brick is not evil —
only greedy.
It will gladly eat the hour
that was about to become you.
So when Boredom taps your shoulder
and Distraction flutters at the edge of the room,
do not run.
Do not reach.
Sit.
Stare.
Wander.
Let your mind knock around its own attic.
Let it build crooked inventions.
Let it stretch.
For in the sacred, squirming space
between “What now?”
and “Oh!”
you are growing roots and wings at once.
All hail the slow minute.
All hail the wandering thought.
Stay curious.
Stay unbricked.
Mindmarrow Counseling, PLLC 