Languishing The opposite of flourishing — languishing is when you feel lackluster or disconnected, but you’re not in notable distress. Recognize the feeling? Maybe today? Or are you just tired? Maybe you’re reliving some earlier trauma? Or instead you could be lacking a nutrient in your diet. We could go on for quite a while, going over the sensations and accompanying thoughts, moving onto interpretations, analysis, discussion, rumination, and possible cures — ad infinitum. We could “wake up” hours or even days later, realizing we went down the rabbit hole of yet another fascinating storytelling episode. And it all started with some innocent sensation-thought clusters, followed by giving of attention and meaning to them. Today, as I write this, there are sensations interpreted as fatigue, a disinterest in the usual activities, and a general lack of energy. And right here, in the middle of what we could fancifully call languishing, is the possible recognition of a very simple, uncaused JOY. It’s the JOY of being alive, of getting to experience anything at all. It’s the very essence of this empty fullness. [[Kat @ Substack.com]]