Eric Hyde is an Orthodox Christian psychotherapist writing at Eric Hyde’s Blog. I appreciated his brief musing, on the increase of his understanding of boredom from reading Heidegger; he combined it with his own experience and that of his clients, in this post: “Heidegger’s ‘Profound Boredom’: using boredom to cultivate the soul.”
Heidegger names three levels of boredom, the most extreme which is profound. To many people, the idea of profound boredom probably sounds frighteningly close to deep depression — a condition to be avoided at all costs. But I have heard more than one person say that they welcome boredom — even if it is said half-jokingly, as in, “I wish I had time to be bored!” But there are various ideas out there about what boredom is, and theories about what to do about it, if anything. I’d like to learn more about the difference between boredom and acedia. So this probably won’t be my last post on the subject.
Eric Hyde writes:
“If you’ve ever sat alone at the beach, or in the mountains, or the country, or sat gazing at the fully illumined night sky and had that deep sense of your own smallness, of your own seeming triviality in the broad scope of existence, and yet rather than crushing your soul it gave you a sense of calm wonder, a sense of spiritual ordering, then you’ve likely had the experience of profound boredom as Heidegger described it.
“In short, what I found so powerful in the notion of profound boredom is that boredom has the power to grant a person ‘attunement’ to oneself and to existence as 
a whole—or more properly speaking, attunement to Being as a whole—in a truly spiritual manner. Rather than causing torment, boredom, if used properly, can be at once a guide to peace and a guide to the very mystery of being.”
I’m familiar with this attitude, because it is commonly taught in the Orthodox Church; offhand I think of books on prayer by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom.
Hyde gives three tips:
1. Don’t wait for boredom to find you—search it out.
2. Once there, allow boredom to reveal its message.
3. Repeat daily.
Gladsome Lights 
This is an interesting view. Funnily enough, I seldom feel ‘bored’ but appreciate any quiet time that comes my way and find it very productive in terms of thinking or simply allowing my mind to wander. One thought leads to another … and I feel refreshed after such a respite in a busy day.
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Yes!
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I’ve been thinking that the exclamation point after my Yes shouldn’t be there, with the subject of boredom. 😉
Also, I would say if you are not able to interest yourself in anything, if you are not engaged, you are bored. What he describes is not my idea of boredom. What I was yessing was the necessity, nay, the importance of “wasting time”, so to speak, in order to settle certain things in one’s mind, to sort things out.
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What is boredom? More on this coming soon, right here!
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This is an interesting approach. Got to think about that one.
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I have never seen this written about boredom. I would be very interested in what you might find out about the difference between boredom and accedia which is what I also considered profound boredom to be. Or if I find myself in a situation where I have nothing to occupy my mind and have to be at home with the tasks I have the energy to do all done, I have only my backyard to look at and see what needs to be done which is beyond me or I fight off negative logismoi and the temptation to watch garbage TV. What Heidegger wrote of has never happened to me. May I be granted this enlightenment that some experience from profound boredom.
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