In an article in the New York Times, There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing, the author, Adam Grant, names the feelings that result from the pandemic of blah, joylessness, aimlessness, emptiness, stagnation as “languishing.” He offers an antidote to this feeling indifferent to indifference by stating one should consider being in the state of “flow.”
“Flow is that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place, and self melts away. – Adam Grant”
Scientific research shows that naming your feelings (becoming aware of your feelings) is the first step to changing those downer emotions. And being in flow is the opposite of languishing. However, getting from one state to the other isn’t as easy as the article’s author makes it seem.
Being in flow usually stems from following your passions. But what if you don’t know what your passion even is? Or maybe you have many passions. Or are you in a midlife switch from an old passion to whatever the new one will be?
Instead of being overwhelmed by forcing flow, or the maddening annoyance of the pursuit of passion – why not start with a baby step? Start with the spark of something, anything, that captures your attention. From that spark, identify what interests you. Then follow it using your natural born sense of curiosity.
Following your curiosity will cure your feelings of “languishing.”
By Stacey Newman Weldon
Excerpted from her original post “How To Feel Alive – Get Curious.”
