I'm a yoga teacher and artist who loves to talk about yoga, spirituality, meditation, mantra, art, lifestyle, and more. Subscribe to my Lotus Letters to blossom and grow.
Why you should WANT to be bored.. 🥱
Angie Follensbee-Hall"Make your life a work of art." –Eknath EaswarenQuick Links & What's Inside 👇🏽
Hello Reader, When was the last time you were bored? I mean, most of the day, not sure what to do, stuck in the silence, really bored? When I was a child, I was bored on a regular basis. But my mother, strangely, never seemed to be nearly as bored as my younger brother and I. Perhaps all that opportunity for boredom was a gift I didn’t fully appreciate at such a young age. As an adult, I can barely remember what boredom feels like. I mean, I might get a little impatient while waiting at the doctors office or when waiting ninety minutes while getting my car oil changed. But that seems different. What is boredom anyway? The definition I found that feels most accurate is: a lack of stimulation that leaves one craving relief. In a culture that is fed a constant stream of stimulation, from our food (over processed with excess salt and sugar), to our constant stream of media, we have so much stimulation at our finger tips it's no wonder that boredom is a feeling we have no capacity to understand. Being bored is such a completely unfamiliar experience that we don't know how to process it and immediately label it as a "bad" thing. According to Neuroscientist Alicia Walf, a researcher in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, it’s critical for brain health to let yourself be bored from time to time. Boredom can improve your mental health, creative thinking, and intrinsic motivation. Boredom encourages you to re-evaluate your goals and to make important changes in your life. Additionally, your ability to handle boredom (working through it rather than acting out in negative ways) is an indicator of your ability to focus and to self-regulate. So let's shift perspective and think of boredom as a positive experience, with positive benefits. But how do we make ourselves be bored? And now do I need to add “spend time being bored” to my daily to-do list because of all those benefits??? I think the Italians have the right saying for boredom– “il dolce far niente” or the sweetness of doing nothing at all. The word “sweetness” here is so important. It’s not that we should be creating spaces of boredom for all of its many benefits. That is just more of the same to-do list busyness, or it’s some strange Catch-22, or an Alanis Morissette song line. We should be feeling boredom because doing nothing is simply sweet. I don’t even think we should allow ourselves time for boredom so that we can be more productive or creative later. We need to have moments of complete non-productivity for its own sake. We need that spaciousness in our thinking minds and in our bodies, just because we need it. We need moments of emptiness and silence that only come when we are truly in the do-no-thing space of boredom. We need moments of not achieving, not striving, not needing something more to prove that I am important, or valuable, of not having a goal. According to ALL of Yoga and mindfulness practices, across all traditions, Doing no-thing is the most supreme experience. Boredom is an appreciation of what simply is, here and now. Boredom is sitting with what is. And the truth is, I do have a moments of boredom each day. It just feels different now as an adult than when I was a kid. It feels slower, and actually a LOT sweeter because I can appreciate it more. When I sit with my morning brew and I choose to look out the window instead of scrolling on a screen, I'm being bored. When I go for a walk and decide to pause and sit on a log and look at a mushroom, without even trying to identify it and to know it, I'm being bored. When I sit with our kitten Schmendrick and listen to his soft purr, I am in the state of non-achieving and non-doing. It's kinda boring, but oh, so sweet. Sometimes people say things like Meditation and Shavanasa, the ending rest position of yoga, are just too boring. But when you really let yourself get into that space of meditation or that final resting posture, you feel and you know, that it is the very sweetest one. Fully resting is the sweetness of adult boredom. You can join us for this voluntary sweet boredom in every yoga class, where you are sure to get at least 5-10 minutes of total boredom. And if you sign up for our FREE Gratitude Yoga class on Wednesday, November 22 at 9 AM, you will get longer stretches of boredom when we do a few restorative postures. With Boredom and Sweetness, Angie 🖤 "People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day." "To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace." "Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away." Many thanks to Phyllis for sharing The World Central Kitchen, an organization that is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. Events ✨Our annual FREE GRATITUDE YOGA CLASSWednesday, November 22, 9-10 AM, with live music!Online and In-person. In-person is limited, please sign up ahead! Online option is unlimited. Hit reply to get your free Zoom link! Yes, if you sign up I will send out a replay video. Weekly Yoga Classes 🧘🏽♀️Weekly yoga practice is a total mind-body-wellness practice that offers you physical and emotional benefits. Join me for yoga classes in Brownsville:
With the monthly membership options, you can have access to a whole library of yoga classes at your fingertips to practice anytime. Join my Circle Membership– just $15 per month for the library of videos and one monthly drop in. The Monthly Yoga Pass–$45 per month (minimum three months). gives you access to ALL my classes, all month long-up to 12 classes! Come as often as you want for one price, AND get access to all the Zoom replays, and the library of yoga videos. You can also drop in to just one yoga class for $15. Or purchase a yoga class pass, 6 classes for $75. Never been to yoga??? Test out my new student pass, 3 classes for $30! Contact me to inquire about yoga scholarships... You can also practice with me at Upper Valley Yoga in White River Junction:
300 Hour Yoga Teacher TrainingMy decision has been made.This is the LAST 300 HOUR YTT I will run. It will be better for me to offer specialty workshops for both teachers and non-teachers after this training year. So don't wait for another year for 300 YTT. It won't happen again! Gallery NewsThank you to those who came out for our art opening and poetry reading this past Friday! It was a spectacular evening of friends, art, pie, and chai! Gallery OPEN HOURS
Gallery is located at 54 Main Street, Windsor, VT. View the work of Michael Kline, our featured artist for November and December. Like and follow our social media accounts: Book RecommendationDianalee is a new poet at our gallery and gift shop in Windsor, Vermont. Visit us to see her collection of writing! While Dianalee Velie was teaching poetry in Italy, she composed these poems to reflect her love of the country and for her cousins in Santa Croce di Camerina, Sicily. Italian Lesson celebrates the sights and sounds of Italy—explorations of the local food & drink, expeditions, and the lively spirit of the Italian people as they welcomed and shared their way of life. Dianalee Velie is the Poet Laureate of Newbury, New Hampshire where she lives and writes. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has a Master of Arts in Writing from Manhattanville College, where she has served as faculty advisor of Inkwell: A Literary Magazine.
Curious about meditation??Click here to get your FREE Gratitude Meditation and to learn more about my Meditation Course! Quick Link to the Free Meditation Welcome to the Cat Corner of my newsletter...I'd love to feature your cat (or other pet!) in my next newsletter! Featuring Jane's cat Hank, with his co-cat! Send me images of your cat! |
1383 Route 44, Brownsville, VT 05037 |
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I'm a yoga teacher and artist who loves to talk about yoga, spirituality, meditation, mantra, art, lifestyle, and more. Subscribe to my Lotus Letters to blossom and grow.
Kirtan, Saturday, June 20, 4:00 PM, 1152, North Road, Vershire, VT $25 donation drop-in, or just join us at the door. See you there!
🪷 All Classes- Sign Up HERE Inside This Lotus Letter 🪷 🌺 Join our Summer Solstice Celebrations 🎶 NEW KIRTAN ALBUM!!! 📿 Private Sessions with Angie: Reiki, Breath, and MORE 😻 Cat Corner: Send me your pet pictures 📖 Book: Summer Solstice Hello Reader, Some of my friends here just love winter. They revel in the snow and love to ski and snowshoe, and probably they like to make snowpeople too. ☃️ Living in Vermont, it's certainly a good idea to love the winter because we have about 10 months of...
angiefollensbeehall.com Inside This Letter What is the teaching?–Hold Nothing Kirtan on Friday! Sign up HERE Sicily Retreat, 2026 –FREE Info Night, Thursday, September 18 200 YTT Now Open –FREE Info Session Sunday, September 21 Cat Corner–It's not a cat! Sign up for ALL classes and events HERE Hello Reader, When I was younger, I thought that to master Yoga, one had to master the poses. So I spent a lot of time working on challenging poses. I did "master" a few of them. Still, some remained...