If you’re feeling empty, you’re not alone. Many of us feel empty in different ways. For instance, you might feel empty because something is missing in your life.

In eastern philosophy, feeling empty is a spiritual milestone. It’s seen as a blessing, a doorway to freedom. When you feel empty, you become receptive. I know, it doesn’t necessarily feel good. Don’t worry, feeling empty isn’t the final destination. It’s a vehicle for growth.

Acknowledging the Root Cause

The emptiness might stem from –

• Turning points in life which are hard to adapt
• An autopilot mode – working without thinking about it
• Agonizing to lose a loved one
• Striving for perfection or others’ approval
• Suppressed and Repressed emotions

Emptiness is the space that takes over when you stop distracting yourself. It is what you wake up to in the morning. It is the last thing that happens before you fall asleep. Finding the cause of inner emptiness can be a challenging and long process. But instead of distracting yourself by filling this emptiness with things like shopping, food, alcohol and drugs, you’d better find out what makes you feel incomplete and regain your happiness.

How Can Emptiness Be So Heavy

If you have ever undergone through feeling of emptiness you can comprehend how come such an intangible concept can hit you so hard. The only tangible explanation to express its suffering – “so unseen you can’t even touch it and it still fills you up like
nothing else”.

What it makes it a heavy burden –

• It can be people: who once were, now aren’t, never will be again.

• It can be a thing – that once was, now isn’t, never will be again.

• It can be a feeling – which once were, now aren’t, never will be again.

As a result, this feeling can travel through our lives like baggage. The lack of belonging becomes a traumatic imprint that becomes so acutely uncomfortable that we are willing to do anything we can to get away from that particular feeling.

How to Deal with Inner Emptiness

Life exists outside of doing stuff. Stop covering it and let emptiness break you and shine through. You’ll see that space is the gateway to creative living. Emptiness will break the boundaries of your mind. Use the feeling of emptiness to liberate yourself, and walk out as a free human. The key is fighting emptiness is to find out what you are missing. Is it a sense of belonging, meaning or interpersonal connection? Here are several suggestions from leading experts of how to recognize and deal with inner emptiness.

1. Redeploy and Re-balance

Connecting with your soul is not a novel, wishy-washy, one-off experience. It is a serious practice. It is a daily practice that one should commit to for life. You need to make an effort every day to introspect and turn inwards in order to reap the most benefits. And when I mention the benefits, it means everything ranging from the small and subtle, to the paradigm-shifting-mind-blowing mystical-experiences. We should focus on ourselves and spend more time thinking about our desires. In order to be in a positive state of body and mind, you can spend several minutes meditating or exercising.

2. Find Your Needs with the Help of Others

Asking for help can resolve many life issues and can be a first step towards meeting your needs. Everybody has needs, but what makes the needs painful is when we think we cannot get what we need. We think that we have to meet them by ourselves, but sometimes, it is important to take action to get up and find someone to meet the need.

3. Appreciate and Treasure What You Have

Another way to heal your inner emptiness is through gratitude. Research suggests that feeling grateful is a very important positive emotion that allows people to expand their worldview and the view of themselves, which later leads to building better social relations and skills. This means that individuals who are thankful are also more satisfied with their relationships with friends and family as well as they are less stressed and much happier. Try to be appreciative for what is around you by noticing all good things we take for granted. A simple compliment given during the day will show you how much positive energy you can create.

4. Our body plays a crucial role

Mental and physical health is fundamentally linked. It is becoming well known that poor mental health can have a huge negative impact on a person’s outcomes in life. Our body and mental well being go hand in hand. Negligence of good routine, sleeping schedule and consumption of healthy food results in dizziness and bipolar disorder. Emotional and mental health is important because it’s a vital part of your life and impacts your thoughts, behaviors and emotions. Being healthy emotionally can promote productivity
and effectiveness.

Here are 3 long-term changes you can make to maintain a healthy lifestyle:

5. Never Stop Exploring Something New

Neurobiologists have found out that learning something new has motivational effects similar to dopamine which leads to
the emotional arousal. That’s why each time you review the information you’ve learned before, add a couple of new facts. Another good tip is to change your environment. Even such little things as changing lighting or temperature in your room can have a positive effect on your emotional state.

My Instagram handle (@RohanJainGlobal) is full of suggestions on how to be productive and concentrated where I share my views more frequently.

You can also check out my podcast about this topic here ☟