for coming to our mid-year meeting!

I just want to say, Depression,

your numbers are chef's kiss.

- Thanks. I mean, I could have done better, but yeah,

the pandemic really has upped my sales, I guess.

- Wow.

Did I do okay?

Did I do good?

Oh God.

- Anxiety,

you were phenomenal.

Best numbers in years.

Now, everyone, we have a new sales team member.

She's currently our number one

and she was just promoted last year...

everyone welcome Languishing!

- Well, actually I'm not new.

I've been here all year.

- What exactly do you do?

- Oh, well, I offer my clients a sense of stagnation

and emptiness so that they can experience

joylessness, aimlessness.

- Is this woman taking my job?

I can't take this anymore.

I'm so tired.

- No, it's not Burnout.

My clients still have energy.

- But they're not depressed?

- No. Honestly, I don't offer that sense of hopelessness.

I kind of kick in after fight or flight.

(Anxiety screaming)

- So after a year of that, the acute sense of

anguish and despair kind of subsides into me-

a chronic condition of languish.

You can think of me as like

the neglected middle child of mental health.

I offer the sort of dulling of motivation,

disrupting your ability to focus,

and I triple the odds that you'll cut back on work.

- (all in unison) Oooooh! Wow.

- I see based on your followers that you're actually

more popular than Major Depression.

- Oh yes,

but, I actually will end up sending my clients

to you, Depression!

Or, or to PTSD.

- Okay. Yeah.

Cool cool cool.

I may not be ready for it, but okay.

- So what you're saying is you offer

an absence of wellbeing.

- Exactly.

So instead of like Acute Anxiety or Crushing Depression,

I really offer my clients the dulling of delight,

the dwindling of drive,

and indifference to their indifference.

- That's a brilliant marketing strategy.

I can't believe, I didn't think of that.

Why didn't I think of that?

Do you guys hate me?

- Yes.

- So yes, languishing.

It may be the dominant emotion for all of us right now.

After the massive grief of 2020

and being in a constant state of like, feeling unsafe

and having your emergency reserves completely drained,

I can definitely say that every single cell in my body

is extremely tired.

My friend sent me this New York Times article written

by Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology

at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

And boy, Adam, you were spot on.

The term "languishing" was coined by sociologist Corey Keyes

who was struck that many people who weren't depressed

also weren't thriving.

His research suggests that people most likely to

experience major depression and anxiety disorders

in the next decade aren't the ones with those symptoms

today. They're the ones who are languishing right now.

So, okay, great!

We have a name for what we're feeling,

which is the first step.

And we know if we don't fix it, then in 10 years

we're all going to be terrible.

So what do we do about it?

Well, Grant suggests that we get into ~flow~

as often as we can as an antidote to languishing.

So, you know "flow" it's that elusive state where

you're really absorbed in a task or a challenge.

So like time and space melt away.

According to Grant, during the early days of the pandemic,

the best predictor of wellbeing was not

optimism or mindfulness.

It was flow.

People who became more immersed in their projects

managed to avoid languishing,

and maintained their pre-pandemic happiness.

I was not one of them, but now I know.

So what gets you into flow?

For me it's always painting, writing, reading a good book.

Anything that doesn't involve refreshing social media,

constantly checking email, or trying to multitask.

But look, I get that flow can be very hard to achieve.

Some of you have kids or cats

or just tons of commitments and fragmented focus.

But that means that setting boundaries

for uninterrupted time to get into flow state

is not only a healthy thing,

but now an essential part

of surviving this BLAH and preventing it from leading to

major depression and anxiety.

And what I love most about Grant's article,

are his closing statements that in a new post pandemic

reality, it's time to start rethinking our understanding

of mental health and wellbeing.

"Not depressed" doesn't mean you're not struggling.

And by adapting languishing into our lexicon,

we can start giving voice to quiet despair

and lighting a path out of the void.

- What?

- I think I'm ready to get out of here.

- Are you sure?

You have no idea what's going to be out there.

- Yeah, but I also know exactly what's in here.

Which is nothing.

- Well, that's kind of rude.

I'm in here.

- Come on,

you know what I mean.

- I don't actually.

- Are you languishing?

You're languishing, come on.

Let's go paint or something.

- I'm Anna Akana, and thank you to the Patreons

who supported today's video.

And thank you, always, to Daddy Squarespace

for sponsoring today's episode.

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