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The 15 Minute Habit That Unlocks Creativity and Boosts Your Happiness
What if the quiet you avoid is the doorway you’ve been praying for? I share a simple, surprising experiment: fifteen minutes on a treadmill with no music, no podcast, no audiobook—just thoughts. The result felt like a thought download: fresh ideas for work and family, a lighter mood, and a clear sense of guidance that didn’t seem to come from me. We dig into why boredom can be a superpower, how constant notifications erode meaning, and the practical ways to carve out space for creativity and faith.
We start with eye-opening stats on phone use and how endless pings train us to fear stillness. Then I walk through the “boredom challenge” inspired by Harvard’s Arthur C. Brooks and explain why gentle mind-wandering sparks insight. The conversation shifts to spiritual practice and the habit of listening in prayer—how unplugging from noise helps us tune into the Holy Spirit, and why distraction often pairs with discouragement and deception to keep us from our calling. If you’re a parent or mentor, you’ll hear honest reflections on raising kids in a screen-saturated world and how to model healthier attention.
You’ll leave with a simple plan: fifteen quiet minutes a day, a note on your phone (or paper) to capture ideas that surface, and micro-habits to reclaim your attention—like leaving your phone in another room at night or walking without headphones. Expect resistance, but also expect clarity. Try it for a week and watch what unfolds. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and tell me what surfaced for you during your quiet time. Your story might spark someone else’s next step.
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Good morning. Welcome back to another episode. I'm Jenny Peterson, and this is a solo episode today. If you're listening to this the day it came out, happy Thanksgiving! I had a really cool experience this week and I want to share it with you. I came across this YouTube video by a Harvard professor named Arthur C. Brooks, and he was talking about the power and science behind being bored. He said, we're not bored anymore. Like as a human species, we're never bored. Why? Because we have these devices always with us in our pocket. We take it everywhere. He said, We're constantly distracted. We actually can't stand to be alone with our own thoughts. Think about it, he said. He's like, when you are standing on the corner of the street waiting for the light to change, even though it's just 15 seconds, most people reach for their phone. They would rather reach for their phone than spend 15 seconds alone with their thoughts. Our phones go everywhere with us, and we are constantly distracted. We live in a world full of constant notifications and distractions. The average person looks at their phone over 200 times a day. The average person spends four to five hours on their phone every single day. And the average person gets over 150 notifications each day. And it's even scarier when you look at the research for kids under 18. They, on average, get over 240 app notifications each and every day. So this Harvard professor says that you will have less meaning and you will be more depressed if you are never bored. He said that boredom unlocks creativity and can help make you happier. He said it actually combats depression. So I decided to give this a try. I currently go to the gym and lift weights five days a week. I walk 12,000 steps a day. And normally when I go to the gym, I always have my headphones in. I mean, I have left the gym before because I forgot my headphones, which just goes to prove that I was uncomfortable being with my own thoughts and being bored. I'm always listening to either music to pump me up. I actually have a playlist that helps trigger me to get into a state of working out, or I listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Professor Brooks suggested that we try practicing this for 15 minutes a day. And I was like, I can do this for 15 minutes a day. I can unplug for 15 minutes a day. So I hopped on the treadmill with nothing in my ears, just alone with my own thoughts. And I started walking. And I was blown away by what happened. The moment I unplugged and the moment I started walking, it was like this thought download happened. And all of these thoughts came pouring into my mind. Now I had my phone next to me so I could capture any thoughts, thank goodness, because I needed to write them down as they were coming. It was like creativity was actually unlocked. And not only that, I felt happier after I was done doing it. And not only that, I didn't just do 15 minutes, I did an hour. And I walked 9,000 steps without even realizing it. Okay, do you want to hear the craziest part? So the craziest part is I have been praying for God-inspias for months. For my business, for my family, for my life. Thank you, God, for God-inspired ideas. And I have felt pretty much nothing for a while now. And it was like once I unplugged from that device and plugged in to my relationship with God, he poured ideas into my mind and I knew they weren't my ideas. I knew they weren't my ideas. They were out-of-the-box ideas. I knew these were the God-inspired ideas I have been praying for. And all it took was for me to tune out the distractions of the world and to tune in to the Holy Spirit. And then I thought, what if he's been trying to give me God-inspired ideas this entire time? But I couldn't hear him. I couldn't hear him because I was distracted. And then I thought, who wants me to stay distracted? Who wants to interrupt that communication with me and God? You know who? The adversary. It's one of the ways that he destroys us with the three D's distraction, discouragement, and deception. Satan does not want you or I to become the woman or man that God created us to become. And he uses distraction to help us not reach our God-given potential. And then after I had this realization, I started worrying about my family, about my children, about this generation, honestly. I work with the youth. And I'm like, this sucks. Like, here we are as millennial parents raising kids with devices and screens everywhere. We didn't weren't raised like this. We don't know how to handle this. And yet we're supposed to teach our kids how not to be addicted. And the truth is, we're all somewhat addicted to our electronics, to our devices, to our cell phones. And if you don't believe me, just try leaving the house without it one time. Try sleeping with it in the other room. Don't bring it with you when you go to the bathroom next time. When you go to a party, leave your phone at home. Just try it. And you'll realize really quick that you're addicted. And also when I saw that on average, people spend four to five hours a day on their cell phones, I was like, that's almost a full-time job of doing what? Okay, that is 28 to 35 hours wasted on our cell phones. What could we do with that time? Who could we become if we got that time back? Even if we didn't get all of it back, if we just got a little bit back. And listen, I'm definitely not perfect at this. Okay. I think I've made that abundantly clear. So this is something that I'm working on, but maybe we should take the challenge from Harvard professor Brooks and practice 15 minutes a day of being bored. So, you know what's really wild is then I went to church the next day and my friend Katie was speaking in church and she talked about this. She talked about taking time every day to listen to the Holy Spirit. How we we ask God for things, but do we take time to listen? And then I started thinking about, man, if I wanted to build a relationship with somebody, I wouldn't just talk my face off and then walk away. How do you have a conversation with somebody? How do you build a relationship with somebody? It's a back and forth give and take. I talk, you talk, I listen, you listen. So the question is, are we taking time to listen to the Holy Spirit? Are we taking time for those God-inspired ideas? And so that's what I'm working on. I'm working every day to practice this, to unplug. I loved the way that it made me feel after I did it. I actually did feel happier. And it's, it was like, it was like this realization of, oh my gosh, I need to spend more time doing this. I need to spend more time alone in my thoughts, bored, and also working on my relationship with God. So that's what I have for you today. If you do this, tell me about it in stories on Instagram and tag me at Jenny underscore Peterson. You can tag Preston too. If you got value out of today's episode, please share it out. And we would love it if you hit the follow button so you get notified each week when new episodes drop. Thank you so much for spending time today. I love you, and I'll see you in the next episode.