You wake up. You do the things. You get through the day. But somewhere underneath the routine, something feels flat. The things that used to interest you feel distant. You find yourself going through the motions without really inhabiting them. Some people describe this as languishing. That word can be useful, but it does not tell you what is causing the feeling. Languishing can coexist with depression, and this article cannot distinguish them for you.

The Texture of Languishing

People describing languishing often mention a persistent low hum of “meh,” a sense that the colour has turned down a few notches. Days feel rote. Small pleasures register briefly, if at all. These experiences can overlap with grief, stress or depression; the description alone does not establish which is present.

What makes this hard to name is the guilt that can accompany it. Even when nothing seems visibly wrong, you may find yourself asking: What do I have to complain about? That questioning can make the experience lonelier. You do not need to justify the feeling before taking it seriously.

This is not a character flaw or ingratitude. It is a recognizable state with a research history behind it, and understanding it can be the first step toward something better.

Corey Keyes and the Mental Health Continuum

In 2002, Corey Keyes, a sociologist at Emory University, published a paper in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior that proposed something then considered unusual: mental health and mental illness are not simply two ends of the same spectrum. A person can be free of any diagnosable disorder and still be far from thriving. Keyes called the low end of mental health “languishing,” a state he described as emptiness and stagnation, “a life of quiet despair.”

His data from a nationally representative sample of American adults found that:

  • 17.2 percent were flourishing
  • 56.6 percent fell in the middle as moderately mentally healthy
  • 12.1 percent fit the criteria for languishing, a figure roughly equal to the proportion who had experienced a major depressive episode that year

Languishing and depression were not mutually exclusive in Keyes’s study. Some adults experienced both. Both were associated with poorer functioning in daily life and work, which is one reason persistent flatness deserves attention rather than dismissal.

The concept stayed largely within academic circles for nearly two decades. Then, in April 2021, organisational psychologist Adam Grant wrote about it in The New York Times, describing languishing as “the neglected middle child of mental health.” The article helped many people find language for the flatness and disconnection they felt during the pandemic.

“Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.”

Adam Grant, The New York Times, April 2021

Recognising the word can give shape to a feeling that is hard to describe. It can also help you talk about what you are experiencing and what support might be useful. A description is a starting point for that conversation, not a diagnosis.

Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build Theory

One of the more useful things research offers here is not just a label but an explanation for why this state can persist even when circumstances are objectively stable.

Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has spent decades studying the function of positive emotions. Her broaden-and-build theory, first articulated in a 1998 paper and further developed in 2001 and 2004, proposes that positive emotions do something functionally different from negative ones. Where fear or anger narrow attention to the immediate threat, positive emotions like joy, curiosity, and contentment broaden attention and cognition. They expand the range of thoughts and actions that feel available, which in turn builds resources: psychological resilience, social connection, cognitive flexibility, physical health.

Keyes found an association between languishing and depression in his survey data. That does not establish that languishing causes depression or predict what will happen to an individual. Research on positive emotions offers ideas to explore, but it cannot identify the cause of a reader’s flatness.

Fredrickson and Joiner’s Upward Spiral

In a 2002 study with Thomas Joiner, Fredrickson demonstrated something important about the other direction. Positive emotions and broader thinking reciprocally build on each other over time. A small experience of positive affect makes flexible coping more likely; more flexible coping makes positive affect more likely in return. This is what she called an upward spiral: small, consistent experiences of positive emotion accumulate and compound, gradually shifting both the psychological resources available and the baseline state itself.

The implication is significant. Languishing does not wait to be interrupted by a dramatic event. But it can be shifted incrementally, from below, through accumulated small movements rather than a single large one.

Key Insight: Languishing describes low wellbeing and can coexist with depression. Small, chosen activities may offer ways to reconnect. They are not a substitute for care when it is needed.

What This Means in Practice

None of this is an argument for forcing cheerfulness. Fredrickson’s research is specifically about authentic, contextually appropriate positive emotions, not performed ones. Toxic positivity, the pressure to feel good by insisting everything is, is not what the evidence supports. What the evidence supports is the value of creating consistent, gentle conditions in which genuine positive experience becomes more likely.

Think of it less like flipping a switch and more like physical fitness. Wellbeing responds to repeated, structured practice over time. A single run does not transform cardiovascular health, but consistent movement, week after week, produces measurable change. The same mechanism applies here. Small practices, done consistently, create the conditions for the upward spiral Fredrickson’s research describes.

What those practices look like varies, but the research points toward things that build connection, meaning, and a sense of engagement over time. These do not need to be dramatic. They often work precisely because they are not.

Try This Week

Three small, low-pressure things grounded in what the research describes:

  • One moment of genuine noticing. At some point today, pause for two or three minutes and look for one thing that is currently working, pleasant, or interesting, however small. This is not about manufactured gratitude. It is about practicing the broader attention that Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build research describes. When positive emotions are low, attention narrows. Actively directing it elsewhere, even briefly, begins to work against that.
  • One small connection. Send a message, make a brief call, or sit with someone without an agenda. Fredrickson’s research found that positive emotions build social resources, and social resources in turn make positive emotions more likely. The upward spiral, in Fredrickson and Joiner’s research, often starts with something this small.
  • One activity with some absorption in it. Pick something that tends to hold your attention, even slightly: a walk, a piece of music, cooking something, reading something you actually want to read. Languishing is associated with the narrowing Fredrickson describes. Anything that consistently holds attention works against that narrowing over time.

If flatness, loss of interest or other changes persist or worsen, consider speaking with a qualified health care provider. You do not have to wait for a crisis to ask for support. Small wellbeing practices may be useful alongside that support. Upward Spiral offers a 52-week program grounded in positive psychology; it does not assess, diagnose or treat depression.

Written by Jean-Pierre Calitz, Founder & Writer, Upward Spiral