(WETM) – During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have felt unmotivated or had low energy. This can sometimes be described as feeling meh, blah or blase. For more than a year, many people have been restricted to their homes with no where to go and very few in-person social interactions.

Video screens have replaced faces. Headphone have replaced voices. The lack of person to person contact is not in human nature. Even seeing each other in masks has been a painful reminder of the challenge of the past year.

The unexplainable feeling was not burnout from overactivity, but from being disconnected from others. The world seemingly stopped rotating and many people felt the abrupt change.

There is a new term called languishing, which describes that unmotivated and low-energy feeling. Due to the pandemic, many activities like seeing friends, exercising or keeping up with hobbies has been difficult.

“A lot of things that people typically used like outings or activities outside their home had been restricted. That lack of energy and motivation may be related to what’s going on. I think by identifying what’s happening can sometimes give people different perspective,” Dr. William George, psychiatrist at Arnot Health, said.

The first step in overcoming this feeling is identifying the emotion. This can be a challenge. The second step is finding small goals to boost yourself up.

“We do need to find some different ways of engaging ourselves and make an honest effort to take those steps. Pre-pandemic, a lot of those things like going outside connecting with people was just walking outside the door or going into local supermarket,” Dr. George continued.

Experts say making small goals like adopting a new hobby or creating routine will help with combating languishing. It may take more energy or effort than we are used to, but taking that step forward, like meeting up with friends, may be worth it in the long run.

“Until I think you can come up with that self acceptance of needing that change, it makes it hard to actually want to do the change,” Dr. George concluded.