My last post was about looking for romance story ideas because my creativity had abandoned me. Part of that lack I believe to be motivation. Well, that, and being slammed at work for a year and a half. I believe I’ve mentioned before that I’m in the K-12 education grants game in my day job and education hasn’t looked the same for the last year and a half as it did for the previous, say, 50 years. We have to do a lot of amending.
But it appears that I’m not the only one. Michaeline’s last post was about Procrastination and Kittens. Although, it was really a wonderful reason to procrastinate (I’ve been known to procrasti-bake). And Jilly posted about needing to Take a Break because her usual creative wells have run dry.
And then on Monday, I saw a piece in the New York Times that struck a chord with me. There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing. The author, Adam Grant, called it the neglected middle child of mental health and suggested that it may be the dominant emotion of 2021. His summary of how he and those in his orbit were feeling went like this:
“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.”
I like it. It fits. He called it a sense of stagnation and emptiness. And while I’m an introvert and feel like I was built for this isolation, I’m definitely feeing stagnated and aimless. My usual weekend warrior tendencies around the house have turned into a desire for a good book and a cup of tea (or wine). I just don’t feel like I’m functioning at full capacity.
“Psychologists find that one of the best strategies for managing emotions is to name them.” Now we have a name for the blahs we’re feeling now. One of the antidotes in the article is “Flow” or finding that “elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge.” While that may work for some, to me that sounds like if you’re sad, just make yourself feel happy. If I’ve got the blahs and don’t feel like getting into anything, how am I going to get absorbed in nothing? Focusing on small goals sounded good and I feel like I’ve done that all along. I often say “it’s the little things.”
The one recommendation I could really use is the “Give yourself some uninterrupted time” one. My interruptions at work today were legion. I had so many projects open on my computer I thought it would crash. I’m not sure how to achieve this, but I’m going to start working on it. Tomorrow. Well, maybe Monday. Sigh.
Are you languishing? Any ideas to un-languish?
