Feeling bored

Restless or unengaged, wanting something to hold your interest.

Where it sits on the wheel

Bored is in the middle ring, under Tired. Further out: restless, listless and unmotivated.

What did you love doing as a child? Could a small part of it fit into today?

Your answer, if you’d like to write one

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A small screen-free idea for when nothing is holding your interest.

Try something you’ve never done: a new recipe, a few words of another language, a song on an instrument you haven’t played in years. Source: NHS, 5 steps to mental wellbeing
Message someone you haven’t talked to in a while.
Let yourself be bored for a few minutes without reaching for your phone, and see where your mind wanders.
Do something with your hands: cook, sort a drawer, sketch whatever is in front of you.

Tired (one ring in)
Bored can feel like tired, but it often lifts when something interesting comes along.
Exhausted (also under Tired)
Exhausted has no energy left; bored may have energy, with nothing to spend it on.
Numb (also under Tired)
Bored wants something interesting; numb can feel little even when something interesting is there.
Restless (further out)
Restless is boredom with energy: an itch to move or change something.
Listless (further out)
Listless is boredom with low energy, and little interest in anything.
Unmotivated (further out)
Unmotivated is knowing what needs doing but finding it hard to start; bored is wanting something to hold your interest.

Bored is one of the 104 words on the Slow Days feelings wheel, and the list of feelings has them all. The wheel isn’t a test or a diagnosis.