Ennui: What to Do When You Can't Find Joy

ennui, which actually when you look at the root of the word annoyance, it actually goes back to ennui.

And the reason why I chose this word, it's so good to have you here.

The reason why I chose the word ennui is because I interviewed Kelly McGonigal.

She's the Stanford psychologist that has written all these books.

And she wrote this new book called Joy is a Risk Worth Taking.

And they contacted me to see if I would interview her for this book.

And so it came in the mail.

And I put it on my ottoman in my living room.

And I was like, I don't want to read it.

And it was staring at me in bright yellow with fireworks.

And I was like, my ennui did not want to open this book.

I didn't want to read it.

I didn't want to look at it.

I do not want.

And then I kept on reading, is a risk worth taking.

And there was a part of me, this ennui part of me that we all have, ennui meaning you're kind of listless, you've lost interest in things, it's a beautiful day, like the sky is so blue and you can't like penetrate, you know? And I started to think about what is this ennui that's happening? You know, we're on the eve of election, maybe there's ennui in terms of what's gonna happen next, the ennui of just daily living.

So why do we fall flat? And I started to list out these things that I see in my clinical work, but also in my own experience.

Sometimes we get into this place of anhedonia, is what we call it in psychology, anhedonia, loss of interest and joy, and things you used to usually enjoy, like reading a self-help book.