Fighting that "Meh" Feeling of Languishing

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  Pushkin.

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  Many of the difficult feelings we've talked about over the course of this season of the Happiness Lab are at the extreme edges of our emotional spectrum.

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  So far we've mostly focused on emotions that feel powerful and profound.

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  Think the raging fires of anger and the deep sorrow that comes with grief.

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  But today I want to address an equally problematic feeling that's kind of in the middle.

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  It's an emotional state we don't usually talk about,

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  partly because we don't have great words for it.

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  But even though it's pretty nondescript, this middling,

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  listless feeling is very much worth paying attention to.

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  It's a not-so-nice experience that many of us have gone through, especially in the past few years.

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  And it's one that's negatively affected my own personal happiness,

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  maybe even as much as bigger emotions like fear, fury, and regret.

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  You might even be in the grip of this yucky feeling right now.

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  So ask yourself honestly, how are you feeling today?

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  If your answer is meh,

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  then you might be experiencing the feeling that behavioral scientists refer to as languishing.

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  The experience of languishing, that lethargic, joyless, meh,

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  bleh, blah state, has always been part of the human condition.

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  But these days, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,

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  with lockdowns and restrictions disrupting so many of our routines,

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