The Beauty of Boredom
By: Jacqueline Gates
Let’s talk about boredom.
Boredom is not something to be ignored.
Boredom is your potential, screaming for attention.
Boredom is the unrecognized end of an era, a chapter, a phase.
It’s your future, yelling as hard as it can, poking you in the emotions, trying to get you to move towards something different, toward more, towards … other. It is a push to the next level.
But the trouble was boredom is that it’s self perpetuating.
Boredom focuses in on itself and the perceived reasons for its being.
So we keep saying, “I’m bored”, and any suggestions that might fix or help with the boredom get met with things like, “I can’t afford that.” “I don’t have time for that.”, and a million other seemingly valid reasons.
Boredom will do its best to keep you there.
Change takes energy and boredom is the thief of your vitality. When left unchecked, boredom will turn into apathy, and that’s a much harder situation to heal and get out of.
If you catch boredom early, it can be very helpful and informative about where you are on the path you’re walking.
Please don’t believe that we have predestined paths. We make our path by walking it.
Boredom, then, is a signal that you’ve been dithering at a crossroad for way too long.
Apathy is when you kind of build a house there.
If you’re into astrology, check your Uranus transit. Uranus moves in a seven year cycle. The seven year itch is an actual thing. We’re all getting the feeling of something new brewing while we’re being beckoned to shed the something old.
The way to do this is to first appreciate fully what is.
It takes a lot of energy to push against inertia. A steam locomotive can be held in place, despite all its power, by one small block of wood placed on the track. Once it gets moving, that block of wood would be smashed to smithereens.
The idea here then is to do whatever it takes to get moving.
In my experience, we have to first call our power back.
Calling your power back can be as simple as paying attention to what is, and looking for ways in which you could change it. If only by a little bit.
How could tomorrow be a little different?
Don’t aim for long term change because that perspective is overwhelming. That’s your locomotive going 60 miles an hour. First, we have to curate the power to simply get moving.
Begin by noticing what could be changed. What could be better?
What could I do, right this minute, with what I have, that could move things a little closer to ‘better’?
After months of an ennui that I only recently recognized as chronic boredom, this is the question that got me moving.
I took a look around my sumptuous rut and celebrated how I got there. I celebrated everything that I’ve done over the past seven years that built this life, this glorious life, that I suddenly have the gift (and luxury) of being bored with.
I decided to change whatever I could, as soon as I could.
So, at this moment, I am writing this on the pool deck of my apartment building, with vast views of a snow-clad Minneapolis at my feet. I’ve been writing in coffee houses and libraries and 4-star hotel lobbies.
Leaving the apartment was the first thing I could think of to actively change my environment.
Leaving the house meant that I had to do my face and get dressed. (Because #everydayglamour)
That, in turn, led slowly to a massive wardrobe purge, (you can see my post on the 80 20 rule on my FB wall) and a makeup lesson at Sephora.
New environments give me impetus and seem to spark my imagination. When you’re bored, changing your surroundings is a huge shift-generator. The Muse meets me every morning at the coffee shop, and I find that when I get home, rut-busting becomes easy and inspired.
I’ve changed the structure of my day around these new-found priorities.
For example, I don’t go onto Facebook any more until I’ve done my writing. I’m curating an inside voice and that needs to be given precedence over all outside voices, so checking in on social media comes after I’ve checked in with my Muse.
I’m inviting a few more clients onto my roster because connection brings me out of myself and gives my wisdom legs, to go out into the world and create even more change.
None of these things cost any more than some attention and little expenditure of thought and energy. That cost has been repaid in multiples. I am, these days, awash with ideas.
Try it. Change a little every day, and watch boredom dissolve into optimism.
I have zero doubt that this next Uranus seven year cycle, which began with delicious boredom, will end with boredom too, but when I get there, my life is going to be a whole lot different.
When I get “there”, I’ll be living the life I’m dreaming of now.
And you know what? I’ll probably get bored with it.
Which will be a very good thing indeed.
If you’re feeling bored, know this …
We’re so much more than we can ever imagine.
Boredom is your Life trying desperately to remind you of that.
Boredom is a gift because it makes your comfort zone less comfortable.So you don’t stay in it too long.
Boredom is the ringtone of your Future, calling you out and out to play.
Will you answer?
Like, now?
Jacqueline Gates has mastered the art of applying theatrical skills to anchor and amplify the manifesting technique known as acting-as-if. Because when you begin LIVING-as-if you already are who you secretly dream of becoming, it won’t stay a secret very long.
