A feeling of ‘Blah-ness’ — a symptom we all have post pandemic

As we are finally starting to see a glimpse of light at the end of this pandemic tunnel and lockdown restrictions in many countries are easing, you would think that we would all be in a state of mass euphoria. After all, we have waited for this moment ever since we were sanitising groceries in the driveway before bringing them into our homes, not to mention the toilet-paper hoarding (no really, what was that about?!). But many of us are not exactly doing flips of joy just yet.

The collective trauma of the past year has left many of us with a feeling that is difficult to shake off. It seems many of us have come out of our year of social isolation feeling ‘blah’! There is this lingering feeling of emptiness that hasn’t gone away despite the easing of restrictions.

We still have energy, so it isn’t burnout. We don’t meet the clinical criteria for depression either. We just aren’t fired up about our day-to-day life like we used to be, even though we still get the work done. There is a general feeling of indifference where we are not really feeling sad, but we aren’t really flourishing either. Instead, we appear to be ‘auto-pilot’, going through the motions of dragging ourselves out of bed each day and finding our days blurring together, just as they did while we were still in lockdown.

This feeling of stagnancy, joylessness, aimlessness, and monotony can be summed up by one word ‘languishing’. Psychologist Adam Grant recently suggested this term for the all-too-familiar feeling many people have experienced since the pandemic began — showing up for life but living without purpose and aim.

Languishing is “the neglected middle child of mental health,” he wrote, the absence of well-being, the space between depression and flourishing. “You don’t have symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either. You’re not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and triples the odds that you’ll cut back on work.”

We have all had periods where we have felt unmotivated, but the problem with languishing is that it is creeps up on us so subtly that we might not notice this change. It has also been shown to increase our risk of developing mental illness in the next decade. For example, healthcare workers in Italy who experienced languishing in the spring of 2020 have recently been found to be three times more likely to experience PTSD than their peers.

So how do we get out of this rut? The antidote to this feeling of indifference is what Grant describes as “Flow”. Being in a flow state means being fully connected and fully captivated by something in our lives. It is immersing ourselves in things that help us be present, lose sense of time and forget about our phones. Giving ourselves uninterrupted time doing anything that takes us away from our to-do lists and unread emails, closing the multiple tabs on our browsers and doing something that helps us feel grounded, whatever that means to you. This could be anything from doing a puzzle to reading a book or binge watching your favourite series on Netflix.

Also, making small progress in things that are important to you without having any expectations for the outcome. Not productivity in a capitalist sense but a feeling of growth in small areas in your life that counteracts this feeling of stagnancy. Maybe the silver lining of this past year is that it has been a reminder not to focus solely on your biggest goals. Maybe it has been the year to look for small wins that nourish your soul and replenish your sense of well being. Maybe it is the year that helps us to reset our priorities, rebel against the hustle culture and prioritise our mental health.