Languishing may not seem a serious health issue, but if persistent, it can wreak havoc with your life, first of all, with concentration and motivation. Lately, it has been getting worse due to the raging pandemic. Psychologists describe this as a possibly predominant pandemic feeling – people go on with everyday living, but the sense of purpose and development is sadly lacking with many.
In 2020 experts talked about COVID-19-related burnout, but this year’s term for the condition is “languishing.” What it expresses is the chasm lying between stagnation and evolving in which the feeling of well-being is lost. You can’t be regarded as mentally feeble, but there’s no denying that things are not going right.
Is languishing a disease?
The word “languishing” was used as a psychological term by sociologist Corey Keyes who employed it as the antonym for thriving. One of the clearest definitions of the term runs as follows: “Languishing is apathy, a sense of restlessness or feeling unsettled or an overall lack of interest in life or the things that typically bring you joy.”
“It’s almost like you put yourself on hold and you’re waiting for something good to happen,” explains Shemiah Derrick, a licensed professional counselor, “or you’re even trying to distract yourself by jumpstarting a good old battery that I call emotion, which is to feel something.”
Languishing is generally apt to occur more often with those who have a history of mental health issues, depression, or anxiety or people who have a genetic predisposition to psychiatric ailments.
Yet languishing can not be considered a mental illness far and away, on a par with depression or a panic disorder; rather it is a changing emotional state. The languishing condition is characterized by experiencing monotony, barrenness, and stagnation.
How to feel better?
Suppose you did catch yourself out languishing, finding it hard to stay focused, and generally not knowing whether you feel good or wretched. What can you do to slip out of the condition? First of all, allot a span of uninterrupted time for executing tasks which will bring a rewarding feeling, scoring small victories, and indulging in personal joys. You can always ask others for help merely to help you stay on the line.
There is no telling when the pandemic is going to be over, leaving us in a world free from languishing, meanwhile, we can help ourselves by some simple expedients.
- Whenever you can, let yourself unwind and lie back
- Don’t deny yourself pleasures from small ones to ones that you have been putting off for some time
- Go for a walk
- Do regular physical exercises
- Seek therapeutic methods
If languishing seems just what has been spoiling your life lately, well, you have joined the club. Many are unsettled by the uncertainty and bounds set by the coronavirus pandemic and have a need for ways to bring themselves back to normal. Aid yourself by writing down regularly everything you can be grateful for in all categories: emotional, physical, and spiritual, resorting to it expressly whenever you feel downtrodden by dejection and loneliness. You have to fight pandemic-related distress that can be conquered and will be lifted when we get safely to the end of the unlucky period.
