Acedia

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me an article about something called acedia. It is a term which means bored and listless, associated with an inability to motivate oneself, that arises from social isolation. Acedia comes from the Greek and means a ‘seizing up or freezing of feelings.’ It was described as far back as the 5th century AD and applied to monks who were shut away in monasteries for many months, without any outside contact.

The article goes on to state, “ This might strike you as a piece of interesting but irrevelant trivia. But having the precisely the right name for our emotions matters.

One, you’re less likely to feel there is something wrong with you if you know that humans have been growing listless when confined since before the fall of Rome. But two, modern research shows that accurately naming your feelings helps you deal with them better.

This capacity is called emotional granularity by psychologists, and as Lisa Feldman, author and head of Northwestern University’s Interdsiciplinary Affective Science Lab explains, putting the right word to your feelings “helps your brain figure out when to act… and what to do.. Your actions are better tailored to the situation you find yourself in.”

So next time you’re wandering around your house yawning for no apparent reason and struggling to persuade yourself to do one of the many positive things you know you should do, don’t call yourself depressed or lazy. Tell yourself you have acedia and that it’s 100% natural for humans to respond to physical and social isolation this way.

By feeling less defective and less alone, you just might gain an edge in actually beating your malaise.”

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/productivity-motivation-northwestern-acedia.html

I found all this information really helpful for understanding the way I feel some days. I have found the antidote for acedia, for me, is creativity. The trick is finding an easy access to creativity. For me, it is card making. I leave my card making materials out at all times so there are no impediments to sitting down and beginning to create. I invite you to give some thought to what is the easiest access to your own creativity. Once you know, I invite you to leave those materials out in the open. Once I start being creative, other ideas come, and within 30 minutes or so the acedia feelings have lifted. Give it a try!! I hope the same will happen for you!!