A book of instructions will orient you and includes the mandate, “Be bored.”  The idea is that you do nothing.  You spend your time looking not at a screen but looking out the window into the woods.  Wander around outside, if you want.  Enjoy time with your spouse, if you come as a couple.  But have no schedule, no pressure, no worries.  Stop thinking about everything.  Just exist for awhile.  Doesn’t this sound good?

Boredom has been described as one of the major spiritual problems of our time.  The hyper-stimulation that comes from our technology and our constant-entertainment mentality actually makes us more bored, since we become jaded and weary of it all, as stimulation eventually fails to stimulate.  But there is another sense in which a carefully-cultivated boredom can be an antidote to our harried minds.

A travel company called Getaway  offers  “An experience designed to bring us back to our elements, immerse us in the magic of the woods, and challenge us to rediscover the pleasure of boredom, solitude and unstructured time.”

With three sites two hours from the major cities of New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., Getaway rents tiny but luxurious cabins in a beautiful forest.  There is no Wi-Fi, no television, and a lock-box for your cellphone.  (There is a land-line to call the manager and for emergencies.)  There is food in the kitchen, wood for the fire, and a huge window looking into the forest.

A book of instructions will orient you and includes the mandate, “Be bored.”  The idea is that you do nothing.  You spend your time looking not at a screen but looking out the window into the woods.  Wander around outside, if you want.  Enjoy time with your spouse, if you come as a couple.  But have no schedule, no pressure, no worries.  Stop thinking about everything.  Just exist for awhile.  Doesn’t this sound good?

I’m sure you would hit the boredom threshold at some point, but I suspect that if you just push through it, you would attain the state that used to be known as relaxation.

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