Practice The ART of Being Bored.
In between all of the opportunities mentioned in Mind The Gap, practice with yourselves and family, moments of doing NOTHING. It’s easier said than done to do NO THING. I remember practicing this when I had 2 teenagers, a toddler and a baby, I was constantly tired, hassled, angry and had no where to turn.
As a single parent, I felt locked IN. I started by pretending that I worked for somebody else, minding children and a home. They gave me plenty time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 3 hours after I would put my feet on the ground after waking I would have to take a half hour break.
This was the difficult bit as SO much needed doing. I persevered. The younger children were too young to leave alone, so I would lie down with them crawling all over me. I didn’t engage with them, just let them and myself be. I would close my eyes and just rest my body.
In time I might pick up a book and read for the half hour, sometimes it was not practical to take my half hour, I’d end up taking an hour, ouch, that was hard to do at first. It wasn’t long till everyone around me got the message.
My younger sons would play with each other, as I was not much fun in that half an hour, my teens would entertain themselves by reading, doing some art work, or going for a walk, it’s as if my sons knew on some level, Mama Bear was better left alone for a short while, as after my half hour break, I was so present to them, a recharging of my batteries took place. I’d often snooze for 20 minutes, feeling so refreshed on the other side.
Then that progressed to me taking a half hour lie down in my bedroom. To date I still do this, and my sons do it too. If tired on coming in from school or work, they go lie down.
I am also reminded of the times when they were out of sorts, where to look at them would have them loosing the plot, fighting amongst themselves or with me. I’d tell them to go lie down for half an hour. They would go reluctantly, saying that they were not even tired, always ending up sleeping for an hour, sometimes for 3 hours, waking as little angels, AND sleeping when it came to bedtime.
We need to rest, we are all over stimulated with devices, food, drink etc. Sleep is one of the best medicines for recovery.
In the zone of boredom, if we allow ourselves to go there, magic happens. Creativity begins to stir, good ideas, begin to surface because they have space to do so. Meditation is also one of the things we don’t give enough time to because it’s boring. It took me a while to hang in there being still, eventually I began to meet myself in this space, once that happened I then realised that ‘I was the one I’d been looking for’, from that moment, that has changed EVERYTHING.
In Love.
Sherron Xx*
Sherron St Clair 