Dear Friends,
Happy belated 4th to all our subscribers here in the USA!
So often holidays, once over, leave us with a sense of let down – what’s next? Just in case this is you, you might relate to Adam Grant’s description of “Languishing”.
Adam characterizes languishing as feeling joyless and aimless:
“It is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.”
So what is languishing? It is the absence of well-being, and it is not quite depression or flourishing. What is the cure? We believe Ruth exhibits the antidote in her lovely photo:
Ageing means I have time to commit to learning new things. Too much fun!
Commit yourself to learn something new! That can be something completely new as Ruth did or it can be improving a skill set you already have. If you are really absorbed in what you are doing you might enter into a state of “Flow”.
Flow is a state termed by the late great psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who describes it as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one. Your whole being is involved, and you are using your skills to the utmost.”
Adam Grant believes that cultivating the state of flow fights languishing, increases our chances of accomplishing goals and adds to our well-being.
What’s not to love?
Adam’s tips for cultivating flow are pretty simple:
- Get some uninterrupted time.
- Focus on a small goal.
Photography seems like the perfect activity for producing flow so get your cameras out, grab a little time for yourself, and set out to take one photo of something that makes you happy.
The Team here at SeeingHappy
