In his classic Harvard Business Review article on employee motivation, organizational psychologist Frederick Herzberg (1987) reminds us of a human truth: the absence of dissatisfaction for people does not automatically lead to satisfaction for them – although Herzberg found that managers kept acting as if it did. Human psychology is always more complex than we want to believe. But it is predictable. We know, for example, that not being unhappy does not necessarily lead to happiness (Rubin, 2015). And in the era of Covid, not being clinically depressed by the trauma, disruption, and loss around us, does not mean we are psychologically healthy and thriving – and there are serious mental health consequences from ignoring that truth.
A wise colleague, Adam Grant, put a name to the phenomenon and the mind fog, reduced focus, unexplainable exhaustion, and diminished motivation so many of us have felt as we pushed through our pandemic malaise and – if we were lucky – accomplished at least half of what we set out to do in the day. Grant calls it languishing – the middle child of mental health, the void between depression and flourishing, and a widespread feature of pandemic life.
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. (Grant, 2021)
The danger, says Grant, is the invisibility and long-term consequences of the slide.
(W)hen you’re languishing, you might not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive. You don’t catch yourself slipping slowly into solitude; you’re indifferent to your indifference. When you can’t see your own suffering, you don’t seek help or even do much to help yourself. (Grant, 2021)
Sociologist Corey Keyes (2003) first coined the term, and languishing has always been more common than depression. What’s different now? The pandemic has made it a global phenomenon – and as we face whole communities and countries living through a long siege of it, we’d best attend to its consequences. Languishing predisposes people to future depression or anxiety disorders (Keyes et.al., 2010); and new research (Bassi, et.al., 2020) on pandemic health care workers in Italy found those who languished worse from the trauma they saw were three times more likely than their peers to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
So, what can we do? A first step is to name it. See how it fits our current situation or those we love. We can’t combat it if we don’t see and acknowledge it. Reach out to friends and to people whom we’ve lost touch with over the years. We are social beings who are helped by connection. Physically distant does not mean we must remain psychologically disengaged.
Second, find pleasurable activities that completely absorb you and deliberately break the malaise. Grant talks about searching for flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008) – those deeply pleasurable experiences where time flies from engaging in something that brings joy and satisfaction. Flow pushes out the pain and noise, and reminds us of the power of our agency. No one who knows me would have expected cooking under the daily online tutelage of Jacques Pepin to bring me flow, but it gave me periods of concentration and control of my kitchen when the world was out-of-control – and the pleasure of planning future dinner parties on the other side of the scourge.
Third, make choices that will build back the skills in concentration weaken under the constant angst and uncertainty of Covid life. You can’t flow while multi-tasking and constantly checking Twitter! Give your mind a break and periods of uninterrupted time. The pandemic has provided us all opportunities to rethink our priorities and to drop the extraneous that once seemed so vital.
Fourth, the pandemic has brought loss in so many ways. And loss requires grieving. We grieve best in community. Find others with whom you can mourn and from whom you can seek support for accepting life’s changes.
Fifth, start small. There is pleasure in tiny triumphs if we see them. Grant reminds us that the best path to flow is “just-manageable difficulty”: an activity that stretches skills and tenacity and lets us rediscover the joy and enthusiasm we’ve missed.
Sixth, we know how to build personal resilience. Now is a good time to revisit that tutorial. Languishing is not only in our heads, Grant reminds us, it is in our circumstances. We have miles to go in this pandemic, but vaccine success requires strengthening our resolve for the last lap and working those under-used social and psychological muscles so that we’ll be ready to get back fully into the game.
I have found in my research that we build resilience in our darkest hours by attending to what I call the Five B’s: boundaries, biology, balance, beauty, and bounce (Gallos and Bolman, 2021). Focus on what you can control and let go of the rest: know your boundaries. Take care of your body with rest, exercise, healthy eating. Balance hard work and pleasure – be kind and extra good to yourself. Embrace the beauty of the arts: music, literature, gardening, and artistry of all kinds are a human sanctuary. Finally, take hope in the human capacity to strengthen in the face of challenge. It is miraculous. We bounce back faster when we learn to reframe – disappointments and struggles are gifts if seen as an impetus for long-overdue change. So are ditching expectations for perfectionism, plenty of laughter, and a good nap!
The pandemic pulled us by necessity into smaller, less joy-filled, less socially-connected lives than those we led before. It also offers us the seeds to build ourselves back better if we are patient, self-aware, and kind to ourselves and to other as we all embrace the possibilities of creating a better world.
References
Marta Bassi, Luca Negri, Antonella Delle Fave, and Roberto Accardi (2020, November 13). The relationship between post-traumatic stress and positive mental health symptoms among health workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Lombardy, Italy. Journal of Affective Disorders, 280: B, pp. 1-6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032720329955
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2008). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Joan V. Gallos and Lee G. Bolman (2021). Reframing Academic Leadership (second edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Adam Grant (2021, April 21). There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html
Frederick Herzberg (1987). One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review (September-October). http://www.mcrhrdi.gov.in/91fc/coursematerial/management/14%20One%20More%20Time%20How%20do%20you%20Motivate%20Employees.pdf
Corey L. M. Keyes (2003). Complete mental health: An agenda for the 21st century. In C. L. M. Keyes & J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived (p. 293–312). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10594-013
Corey L. M. Keyes, Satvinder S. Dhingra, and Eduardo J. Simoes (2010). Change in Level of Positive Mental Health as a Predictor of Future Risk of Mental Illness. American Journal of Public Health (December 2010), 100, pp. 2366-2371. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2010.192245
Gretchen Rubin (2015). The Happiness Project. New York: Harper Paperbacks.