“It wasn’t burnout — we still had energy. It wasn’t depression — we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there’s a name for that: languishing. Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021. In psychology, we think about mental health on a spectrum from depression to flourishing. Flourishing is the peak of well-being: You have a strong sense of meaning, mastery and mattering to others. Depression is the valley of ill-being: You feel despondent, drained and worthless. Languishing is the neglected middle child of mental health. It’s the void between depression and flourishing — the absence of well-being.” Adam Grant
Today, take time to read the full article and you can read the abstract from the original research for free – full article behind a paywall. Does the idea of languishing help you make sense of the way you have been feeling in the last year? Sometimes just having a label for something can be useful. If the full article feels like too much effort, then check the delightful website from Sktechplanations (source of visual in this post) for a simple, short and effortless explanation. And you can take time to check some other sketches from the site.
Tweet your response to @livedtime and be sure to include the hashtag #tds2174
Don't Want to Tweet Your Response? Really?