One of the hardest things I have done is a Vipassana Meditation retreat.
If you are not aware of how Vipassana works – you are not allowed to talk, read, or write. You are expected to meditate for 10 to 12 hours a day. And your phone? Forget about it for 10 days.
The mind, which is usually addicted to thinking, now has no inputs to chew on.
With no new inputs in place, the mind keeps on ruminating on old thoughts. And then, after 2 hours, there is a thought, ‘Dude, you have thought about this before’, which is when you start counting the number of hours and days that are left before you leave this god-forsaken prison.
With no new inputs and endless rumination, boredom sets in. It’s like a Dementor has reached inside your head, and the nice ultra HD Color TV you had has been now transformed into a Black and White TV, which was then transformed into a radio. And the radio was replaced by silence.
The power of boredom is such that the mind is forced to entertain itself.
And this is when creativity emerges.
An idea for a project. Or a book. A workshop. A LinkedIn post. Some excitement, at last!
Of course, as a meditator, you are not encouraged to live these fantasies, but no harm in acknowledging them and making a mental note of all the projects you want to execute later.
3 Vipassanas later, I find myself asking the question –
Do I need to go to a meditation retreat to find boredom?
Or can I create pockets of boredom in my everyday life? Switch off social media, my phone, and all other distractions for 2 hours daily?