Like anger and other emotions, boredom most often fools us into diverting our energies entirely to an external situation. This it keeps us from liberating ourselves by seeing our relationship to the emotion itself. We make a big mistake about boredom when we think that it comes because of a particular person or situation or activity. So much of our restlessness in meditation practice and in our daily lives comes from this fundamental misunderstanding. How often do we try to find something new to recapture our interest, something more stimulating or more exciting? 

To realize that boredom does not come from the object of our attention but from the quality of our attention is truly a transforming insight. Fritz Perls, one of those who brought Gestalt therapy to America, said, “Boredom is lack of attention”. Understanding this reality brings profound changes in our lives. Then boredom becomes a tremendously useful feedback for us. It is telling us not that the situation or person or meditation  is somehow lacking, but rather that our attention at that time is half-hearted.

Joseph Goldstein, Insight Mediation