In the doldrums

THE eponymous expression refers to a mental state of inactivity and listlessness that is hopefully temporary. The “doldrums” refer to a nautical term. As a term for lethargy, it is synonymous to the more contemporary slang of a “bad hair day.” This equivalent though hints of irritability and snarling behavior.

There are just random days that feel blah. There’s nothing in the appointment calendar to get excited about, nothing to look forward to. (What’s for dinner?)

Even tycoons at the peak of their powers can get caught in a day where nothing seems to go right. There are no goals that have been surpassed, no empires to acquire with debt, and no ambush interviews.

One is feeling lost. Being in the doldrums involves a sense of malaise, ennui, tedium, and listlessness. This may be caused by something totally out of one’s control like the outcome of a tennis game, the indifference of a chat group, or having a persistent cough.

An ordinary day just feels lost. It’s not yet Holy Week, but everything seems to be in slow motion. Nothing to be worried about. A bad-hair day requires the grooming of the spirit.

How do you snap out of the doldrums?

Meditate. Contemplation gives you a chance to catch up on your reading. Try Marcus Aurelius who takes a long view of things. He advises eating a raw frog in the morning, so that the rest of your day will seem more pleasant in comparison. (What could be worse?) This kind of advice is part of his Meditations. Maybe, it’s not just any kind of frog?

Have coffee with long lost friends. They have forgotten your sense of humor and its manifest absence. They will not ask — why are you in the doldrums? What do they know? Go out with accountants, constitutional lawyers, or a proselytizer for AI and how robots will replace real reservation clerks. Your silence will not bother them. And you don’t really have to listen closely to what they’re saying. Just nod every three minutes.

Check out your former preoccupations. There are always unread books that have been downloaded and waiting to be given some attention. It’s a good time to catch up and get back into the rhythm of diverse subjects to delve into, like mysteries and biographies of famous people.

It’s all right to be a recluse. People will mistake your isolation for being in the doghouse, which is an entirely different experience and involves having lost out in some competition. Saying “regrets” to all sorts of invitations for dinner or out-of-town fireworks displays from high school classmates is not as strange as it seems. Expect the invitations from the Viber group to abate after a while. (Can you put me back in the chat group?)

While it is true that there is a region of the ocean near the equator designated as the Doldrums and characterized by calm and gentle breezes, tedium is not a place at all. So you can leave it anytime. The doldrums are a mental signal, much like the low percentage of remaining charge of a hand phone that needs to be plugged in.

The body too needs to be turned off temporarily and recharged. This process of rebooting may be in the form of physical exercise. It may be traveling to a new place or joining a support group like Doldrums Anonymous. Recharging your mental and physical batteries probably entails new experiences and getting out of a rut.

A pause, hopefully not indefinitely stretched into a depression, is useful for taking stock and acquiring perspective.

Isn’t this what a closed retreat is supposed to achieve? This is usually an out-of-town respite of prayers and short talks accompanied by silence. It’s a scheduled pause that has a designated beginning and end.

How do you know that the doldrums are over?

You get back your appetite and resume your scheduled peristaltic movements every morning. You don’t go back to sleep after waking up to the alarm clock.

Being in the doldrums is a temporary state. Sometimes, it’s over before you realize you were ever there. Anyway, like Sagada, the blahs are a nice place to visit, even if you don’t really want to live there.