Several times this week I came across a meme or a note
regarding the term languishing and something
about this really hit me. It’s described
as the void between depression and flourishing or the absence of well-being.
It really is exactly how I’ve been feeling these days.
I’ve noted before that I’ve been healthy and employed and
overall very lucky throughout the pandemic.
As a result, from the outside, there’s no “need” to have this
feeling. Things are going well, why are
you in this void?
Another part of this meme is that it says that languishing is the name for the “blah
you’re feeling” and I think this is one of the best descriptions of most that I
know these days.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot about anxiety and
depression and I’m learning to recognize it in others as well as myself. What I see right now though isn’t necessarily
depression amongst family, friends, and co-workers.
But it clearly isn’t flourishing either.
We don’t always jump at the idea of a group call even if we
know we need it. The games nights with friends
are much fewer and far between. When was
the last time you baked a loaf of bread?
Wasn’t that a big thing?
We’ve been dealing with this for over a year now. This time last year the conversations were
about “when this is over” and “when things get back to normal” but I don’t hear
that much anymore. People aren’t
necessarily down the dumps depressed or shutting down or out, but they’re not
optimistic either.
I think that this is partly because for many of us in April
of 2020, Covid was still theoretical.
The conversations were about someone’s co-worker’s second cousin or the
grandparent of a guy you grew up with but haven’t talked to in 30 years. These people, and the ones we saw on the news
were the faces of Covid.
How many of you can say that now? I think a year in, you would be very hard
pressed to talk to someone who is still that separated from Covid. To find someone who hasn’t been personally
affected through a co-worker, a friend, a school mate, a family member, or even
themselves? We no longer have the luxury
of it being something we hear about but not affecting us.
So, it’s hitting us differently now I think whether we fully
recognize it or not. Because of that
however, I think it’s much harder to look forward.
Now the focus has become, when everyone gets vaccinated,
then we can move forward. However here
in Canada, we aren’t even super optimistic on that. Limited supply has put us in a spot where
people are struggling to qualify for vaccines.
I myself qualified early when no one else in my family including my own
parents had yet received it. This caused
sleepless nights on trying to understand if I should do it or not. In the end, with the urging of family and friends,
I chose to get the vaccine as soon as possible but I couldn’t help but feel I had
jumped the line. Realistically Canada,
or at least my own province, will not be fully vaccinated so that we can start
on the road to “normal” until the fall of this year.
My hope for my readers is that you can continue to push
through this period of languishing. That you can continue to look forward to
flourishing even if it seems hard to see that now. I think it’s safe to say that things will not
go “back to normal” but things will get better.
And if you find yourself more on the isolation and depression side of
the emotional spectrum, reach out to family or friends or even me if you need
to talk. We’ll get through this.
*Image source: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/projects/flourish/about/
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