Episode 28: Learning How to Move from Languishing to Flourishing

In early 2021, Adam Grant published an article in the New York Times that said, “There’s a name for the blah you’re feeling: It’s called languishing.” The article quickly went viral. Adam spoke to an experience that we had all been experiencing. Over the past couple of years, we have moved from grief and sadness to an overwhelming sense of languishing due to the pandemic and ongoing challenges of life. We just feel meh. Empty, stuck, stagnate, joyless. It’s not mental illness, but we’re definitely not experiencing mental well-being either. We’re stuck between sickness and true health.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get unstuck. I’m ready to start living again. I’m ready to show up to my life joyful, hopeful, and expectant. I want to get back to living an active, engaged life of meaning, no matter what the pandemic or the political or social, or economical world around me has to say about it.

In this episode, we get clear on what languishing is and discuss what it takes to move beyond it. We learn that many of the things we’ve turned to in order to cope with the challenges of life in recent years are temporary fixes that often leave us feeling more empty. Instead, we have the option to find the cure to languishing. And the cure to move from languishing to flourishing is an active engagement with our actual lives in the real world.