Acedia: the ‘devil’ we all know
Do you sometimes feel a “gloomy combination of weariness, sadness, and a lack of purposefulness”? Maybe you don’t have the drive to finish (or start) that project, or you don’t really want to get dressed up enough to go out for more than a quick shop, or you’d rather settle into a really good book (or movie) than to, you know, get out and actually talk to someone.
We’ve all had that feeling at one time or another, or just more often than we want. The feeling has a name: acedia. Some people describe it as “depression, melancholy, burn-out, or even mid-life crisis” (although that seems to restrict it to a specific group, which it isn’t). Other words, like ennui, listlessness or good old Weltschmerz also inform the same thing, but “acedia” has history.
The word acedia (or more theatrically, the ‘noonday devil’) has its roots in religious antiquity, but it is as modern as your last bout of “Na… maybe tomorrow”. The good news is that this “combination of weariness, sadness and lack of purposefulness” is not laziness; it can even manifest as busyness or activism. The bad news is that it’s serious enough to be described by some excitable people as the Unnamed Evil of Our Times, which sounds all judgy to me, but it underlines how pernicious it is. That, and how insidious, too.
But worry not, fellow traveler, there are ways to push back against acedia. Some of these strategies have the annoying ring of ‘self-actualization’ (or worse, ‘wellness’. Uggh), but there’s good points here.
Ways to wrestle acedia to the ground
Talk it out with a pal- trying to articulate issues makes them clearer.
Try new things, go new places, flip your routine.
Get social- go out of your way to interact with people
Engage in journaling- it makes you more aware of we’re you been, which helps in deciding where you’re going.
And here’s something as simple as it is effective: get on the ‘action wheel’ Instead of waiting for inspiration to prod you into action, skip ahead to an action, any action. To start something, do something. This real-world look at getting your ass in gear comes courtesy of Mark Manson, the guy who wrote the Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (his asterisk, not mine). Sitting around doing nothing? Get up and start something physical. Inspiration and motivation will follow, as naturally as the sun rises.
Related (and a personal fave) is this: In George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, the Devil asks Don Juan why he expends effort to learn about himself and what motivates him. Don Juan replies: "Why, to be able to choose the line of greatest advantage instead of yielding in the direction of the least resistance. To be in hell is to drift, to be in heaven is to steer."
The above quote actually helped in a real-world situation not long ago.
Other voices, possibly more articulate (or not) about acedia. There are religious overtones sprinkled hither and yon, but still some useful info.
-Tom New