The Power of Boredom: Why Boredom is Essential for Creating a Meaningful Life

"Mark Hawkins takes a fresh and meaningful approach to the topic, and shows us what we risk, not by being bored, but by trying to avoid it." -Terri Trespicio, author of Unfollow Your Passion

"I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to live a more meaningful life." - Park Chan-Kuk, Prof. of Philosophy, Seoul National University

"Mark Hawkins is an expert at being bored." - The New York Times

ARE WE DISTRACTING OURSELVES AWAY FROM HAPPINESS?

It is so easy to fill our boredom with work, activities, and quick entertainment. But avoiding boredom prevents us from using it to create a life full of meaning and purpose.

Dr. Mark Hawkins is a psychotherapist, writer, and educator who gets to the core of why boredom is a powerful human emotion. Drawing from psychology, philosophy, and personal experiences, Mark shows us that boredom can be seen as spaces in time containing pure creative potential available for life transformation.

Along the way, Mark provides a perspective of boredom that can sometimes be counter-intuitive. For example, why busy people may, in fact, be the most bored, and why filling your boredom with the wrong things can actually create more of it.

Mark A. Hawkins, Ph.D., is an author, educator, and a clinical counsellor. His research focuses on interdisciplinary understandings of meaning and purpose as they relate to human wellbeing. He is the author of The Mismatched Human: Our Fight for a Meaningful Existence.