When Meditation Feels Boring

The Daily Meditation with Brother Richard · Mar 9, 2026 · 10m

In this meditation, I speak about a very old and very familiar experience: the feeling that you would rather be somewhere else.

In the monastic tradition, this restlessness has a name: acedia. It is not laziness, but a subtle boredom that arises just when practice begins to deepen. It offers us alternatives — other places to be, other chairs to sit on, other tasks to do. It may even suggest that we are not progressing and should stop.

Rather than fighting distraction, we learn to notice it and smile. We gently return to the breath. We quietly reaffirm, “I choose this time of meditation.”

This…