B for Boredom
On living a devoted life from A to Z
Hello, friend! Thank you for being here. This year, I am doing a creative experiment that I'll be sharing how I choose to live my word for 2025 "devotion", one alphabet at a time. Enjoy!
Last September, as I paced around the airport waiting for my late-night flight to Melbourne, a question came to my mind: What kind of life do I want for this new beginning? Immediately I thought to myself: I just want to live a simple, boring life for a little while.
My mind travelled back to the eighties, when I grew up hard of hearing without support. I struggled with anything involving hearing and listening. From following conversations on the dinner table to trying to understand news and movie plots, singing along to the radio to talking to cousins and friends. Naturally I stayed quiet and watched the world mumbling non-stop for most of the time.
As a kid, I used to find most weekends boring. Our family would visit different relatives each weekend. The adults would play mahjong and chitchat about their children. Some cousins would watch the mahjong games (but I was not interested). Others would be engrossed in their Gameboys (which I never had one) and comparing scores and tactics very few minutes. Often, I would be left alone on my own device, with nobody to talk to and nothing to do.
So, I turned to what I feel drawn to and resonated with – pictures and written words.
I would read whatever newspaper or tabloid magazines I could find in whosever home from cover to cover. From local news to international headlines, stock market trends to celebrity gossips, weather charts to sports results, and even the raunchy adult contents. Those boring weekends became my favourite time of the week.
It felt like I was dropped into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and enchanted by all the colours, flavours and varieties of the grown-up world. So many words I did not recognise. So many concepts I did not grasp. So many questions I did not have answers. Where did our laws come from and who made them up? Why would we call the stock market a bear or a bull? How come the Americans got involved in everything around the world? What’s the point of beauty pageants/horse racing/car racing? What would millionaires do with all their money? I would spend hours staring at the ceiling and pondering these questions, with the clicking and clacking sound of mahjong tiles softly touching my ears in the background.
Somehow, I never thought to share or ask the adults about what I had read. I simply let myself to take everything in as they are. Instinctively I kept this pastime my little secret. And I suspected my relatives might have found me a little boring and unusual.
Boredom gets a bad reputation in today’s hyperconnected world, where our smart devices offer 24 hours a day, seven days a week endless access to information, entertainment, and consumption. Many of us have been conditioned to be so obsessed with the incessant doing – in exchange for a transient sense of relief, pleasure, or belonging – that we become so afraid of being bored with nothing to do.
Because slowing down may feel like falling behind or missing out in life; doing nothing may feel like losing relevance or being deemed lazy and useless; and sitting still may feel like being held against our will in an invisible prison.
Yet befriending boredom is one of the keys that can set us free – from the rat race, from the hustle culture, from toxic productivity, from the world that is constantly demanding our attention, energy, and money.
Boredom takes our mind for a wander. It let us sink deeper into the conscious and subconscious of our being. It puts our head, heart and body back together, awakening our inner genius who already knows in its heart how to live this wriggly human life.
Boredom teaches us patience and presence in a world of speediness and distractions. It whispers to us – be still, watch, and listen with your whole being. It nudges us toward curiosity, toward wonder, toward the unknown. It shows us beauty and synchronicities that are hidden in plain sight.
Boredom sparks inspiration and stirs creativity. It is the blank canvas where our dreams can run wild without limits and constraints. It is the rich soil where our ideas can take root, sprout, grow, and bore fruit naturally and organically.
After decades of chasing the goal of “living life to the fullest”, I desire to take my life back to zero, where I am free, empty, light, and mindful. Like what little Bonnie did when no one was paying attention – let herself be bored, see what come and what go, and dream up all kinds of dreams.
“When boredom arises, feel it in the body. Stay with it. Let yourself be really bored. Name it softly as long as it lasts. See what the demon is. Note it, feel its texture and energy, the pains and tensions in it, the resistances to it. Look directly at the workings of this quality in the body and mind. See what story it tells and what opens up as you listen. When we finally stop running away or resisting it, then wherever we are can actually become interesting! When the awareness is clear and focused, even the repeated movement of the in- and out-breath can be a most wonderful experience.” ~ Jack Kornfield
We were blessed to have the childhoods that we've had. I, too, spent many hours bored while the moms did their own things. After all, there's only so much you can do. I remember lots of WAITING at doctors, dentists, while mom socialized, shopped, you name it.
And like you, during the height of it, when we relocated from Hawaii to Barstow (the middle of the desert) I "discovered" reading. Love finding things in common with you, Bonnie, xo
I couldn't agree more Bonnie. Thank you for your wisdoms from childhood. I think boredom opens up to inspirations we never could forward plan. It brings forth space!! Live this for you, for me for all! X