How to Reclaim Your Right to Be Bored

Japanese art and design, the term yohaku no bi (余白の美 ) expresses the beauty of empty space. It’s employed across the arts from architecture, gardening, and the culinary arts to painting, literature, and cinema. 

It is powerful for many reasons: it gives form to the solid through a void; it can be used to direct the eye and offers the eye a place to rest; it holds infinite possibility; and allows space for the viewer to interact and engage with the piece, to write themselves into the artwork, making it their own.

Productivity says move, move, move. Boredom comes after “I’m not engaged” but before you’ve decided what might be more engaging. It’s uncomfortable because it’s uncertain. It’s unclear. But it’s also an opportunity to recalibrate life toward your values, or simply to rest and restore. 

Boredom is the pause in between breaths. It is not the exhale of production. It is not the inhale of inspiration. It is the space between.