Member-only story
Recognizing pandemic ‘ennui’
On the first anniversary of COVID-19, I find myself sensing a theme when I talk to my friends about how they’re holding up. Amidst endless lockdowns and world news that never seems to improve, many of them discuss feeling a sense of listlessness and a lack of interest in their day-to-day lives. I can relate to this — I’ve felt similar things even before the pandemic, but it was much easier to ignore thanks to social distractions and travel plans. Now, with people stuck inside 24x7, it’s easy to succumb to this chronic feeling of boredom and despair, i.e. ennui.
Ennui is defined as chronic boredom, often accompanied by dissatisfaction and apathy. People can experience ennui as a general feeling about their lives or concerning a specific area, e.g. work. Similar to boreout (the less famous sibling of burnout), ennui often sets in as a result of monotony and an inability to change one’s situation. Repetition and a lack of control are lockdown themes across the globe and it’s no wonder that boredom (and probably, ennui) has skyrocketed during the past year.
If any of the above sounds familiar, you may also have ennui lurking in your life. Not to worry though, you’re not alone and pandemic-induced ennui is affecting a majority of people right now. Ennui and I have become frenemies during this pandemic and here are some tips that helped me defeat it (on most days, anyway):
