As a kid you stared out the car window for hours and invented whole worlds. That kid knew something about being where you are.

Boredom used to have somewhere to go. Long stretches with nothing to look at turned into invented worlds, because a mind will do that if left alone for twenty minutes. That capacity has not gone anywhere, it simply never gets the empty time it needs. What looked like doing nothing was the condition for a lot of what you made up.

Give yourself one stretch this week with no input at all: a bus ride, a queue, ten minutes in the car before going in. No music, no scrolling, nothing to read. It will feel uncomfortable for a few minutes and then it will not, and something will turn up.