Emptiness in the soul... It is safe to say that almost all people living on the planet have encountered it. Although at first glance at them it seems that this is not so. The man smiles and communicates with others. But few people know what is really going on inside him. And there can be anything: disappointment and pain, hopelessness, uncertainty about the future and much more. Why does this condition occur? Why is it dangerous and how to deal with it?
Why does inner emptiness arise?
Psychology identifies several reasons why a person develops a feeling of emptiness in his soul. Let's look at those that occur most often.
Fatigue
A lot can be said here. Have you noticed how after a busy day you don’t want anything? Excessive physical and emotional stress, a frantic pace of life - all this throws you out of balance and provokes exhaustion. As a result, vital energy becomes less and less.
Severe stress
We are talking about an unexpected change of circumstances, for example, a spontaneous move, the death of a loved one, a serious quarrel with relatives and other similar situations. They are accompanied by a mass of negative emotions, which do not have the best effect on the internal state.
Shock
At first glance, it seems that this is the same as stress. But there is a significant difference between these two concepts. The shock occurs at the moment when dreams of happiness come across harsh reality. This could include, for example, treason.
Lack of life goals
This may be their complete absence or a state when everything you wanted has already been received. A lot of free time is freed up, which has nowhere to be spent. A man wanders aimlessly through the streets, watches TV series while lying on the couch, and scrolls through the news on social networks. He sees nothing but disappointment and a feeling of spiritual emptiness for himself.
Acute period
It happens that all imaginable and unimaginable difficulties fall on your head at one moment. Problems come one after another. There is no end or edge in sight for them. At such moments it seems that there is no strength left at all. The person feels nothing but devastation.
Financial difficulties
Mental emptiness also appears when there is no way to satisfy your needs and desires due to lack of money. The individual sees that others have a much better situation than him. And this fact makes him sad, causing him to experience psychological discomfort and sometimes even despair.
Fears
There are two types of motivation: “from” and “to”. In the first case, we are motivated because we are running away from everything unwanted in life. First of all, these are our fears.
Napoleon Hill, in his famous work “Think and Grow Rich,” spoke about six main types of fear: fear of criticism, poverty, loss of love, illness, old age and death.
In any case, fear is a negative motivator and is always associated with a state of discomfort, resistance, and struggle. While it is there, we spend a lot of strength and vital energy on maintaining it. Eventually, it becomes ingrained into habits, and we become so accustomed to living in fear that we cannot imagine our lives without it.
Getting rid of fear is a necessary step if we want to move from existence to life. It’s impossible to be happy if you’re constantly carrying a fifty-kilogram bag of weights on your shoulders. Even if you’re so used to it that you don’t notice the burden...
Symptoms of spiritual emptiness
Emptiness in the soul has its own characteristic signs. Here are some of them:
- The person lacks self-confidence. It seems to him that he cannot live up to the expectations of others. And this brings unbearable suffering.
- To find inner peace, you want to always and everywhere be useful. And if everything doesn’t work out, it leads to feelings of guilt.
- A person strives for ideal in all areas of life.
- There are no interests, no desire to communicate with anyone, or do anything.
- Obsessive fears and phobias appear. They deprive you of joy, freedom, and satisfaction from life.
- The individual feels that he is very different from those around him, and not for the better. This causes apathy in him.
- A victim complex develops, a person experiences hopelessness, and realizes the irrevocability of life.
- The meaning of existence is lost, it seems that there are simply no ways to fill the emptiness in the soul.
- The person feels helpless and unhappy. More and more often he has pessimistic thoughts and reasoning.
- There is a feeling that no one needs love. Because of this, the individual does not decide to enter into a romantic relationship. The consequences are sad. Problems begin not only in psychological, but also in physical health. These are insomnia, skin and gastrointestinal diseases, rapid weight gain or, conversely, weight loss.
- In extremely rare cases, people try to fill their spiritual emptiness by committing suicide. It sounds strange, but they really think that all fears, anxieties and worries will go away after death.
There are also situations when a person becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages and drugs. This is another symptom of spiritual emptiness that you want to fill with at least something.
Scenarios
Photo: Travis Huggett
This point occupies a special place among all other reasons, since, on the one hand, it is practically intangible, and on the other, it has almost the most significant impact on the question of why we do not live.
A life scenario is a set of internal attitudes, rules that answer the question of how to live, how to act and what to strive for in life. All this forms a kind of track along which we unconsciously walk. For example, the most common scenario is called “not yet.”
Until we learn two more languages or get three diplomas, we cannot claim a better place in life...
Until we reach Abramovich’s income level, we will not be able to relax and enjoy life...
The essence of any scenario is its conditionality. For some reason we must fulfill some conditions, sometimes completely unrealistic. Often the situation develops like in a fairy tale, where a priest hired a worker: “You will wash the hut, you will clean the yard, you will milk the cows, you will release the cattle, you will clean up the barn and - sleep and rest!”
And sometimes even these conditions are not enough, and we, like Sisyphus, having rolled a stone up a mountain, begin the process all over again. By the way, this is another version of the life scenario called “almost”.
Script conditioning is somewhat reminiscent of the previous point about codependency, since we are forced to walk in a vicious circle, remaining tied to the rut of life along which we have absolutely no desire to move on.
How to get rid of the emptiness inside
What to do when you feel empty in your soul? Getting rid of internal emptiness occurs in several stages:
- First, start complaining. Unusual advice, but very effective. Find someone to whom you can tell everything that worries you. This way you can look at yourself from the outside, and also find out what others think about you.
- Don't be shy to ask those you trust for help. Close people are close. They are the ones who will be able to support you in difficult times or at least listen.
- The third stage is searching for the cause. Why is there pain, disappointment and emptiness inside of you? Maybe you just need to rest and get some sleep? The answer to the question is very easy to obtain. Try a change of scenery. If possible, go to another city. Another option is to get out into nature and organize a picnic. If you want to be alone, just take a walk in the park.
- Shake yourself up. The main goal of this stage is to return your emotional health to normal. Give yourself emotions. Watch an exciting movie, ride a roller coaster, go on vacation to a place you've never been before. In general, do what will help you add bright colors to your life.
Family
Family defines those people who are the most important to us in life. Relationships with them are the foundation for everything else.
Problems associated with family or lack thereof are often truly like cracks in the foundation of the house of our lives. By leaving them unattended, we continue to build a building that may begin to sway. If we continue to turn a blind eye to this, then at any moment a collapse of structures may occur, no matter how correct and impeccable they may seem to us.
Mutual insults, understatement, anger in relationships cause us serious psychological trauma, feeding our pain body and crowding out Love from life.
Often, such problems in relationships arise literally before our eyes, rapidly changing our lives. Often this is a consequence of the fact that we perceive family and relationships as something static, like, for example, a photograph from many years ago when everything was fine.
However, a family is like a living organism that is constantly developing and requires the investment of effort, time and, of course, Love. If people in our immediate environment are unhappy, and we do not notice this, do not try or cannot help them, we will not begin to live and enjoy ourselves.
Common Mistakes
Mental emptiness is an extremely unpleasant state. Everyone wants to get rid of him. The question is what methods. Above we have listed what really works. But there are so-called “bad advice”, following which does not bring anything good:
- Consumption of sweets, alcoholic drinks, drugs. Moreover, many people turn to this, even if they have never had cravings.
- An attempt to distance yourself from reality. Some people immerse themselves in TV series and the Internet, others are addicted to gambling. Some days they spend their days shopping.
- Inappropriate and sometimes strange behavior. This is one of the ways to attract the attention of others, an attempt to express yourself.
At some point, it seems to a person that his condition is improving, meaning appears in life, and the feeling of emptiness goes away. But this is a false feeling. Unfortunately, everything will soon return to normal.
What is the soul
Before understanding the causes of spiritual emptiness, you need to understand what the soul is. An attempt to find an answer to this question has been exciting the minds of both scientists and philosophers for centuries, and there is still no unanimous opinion on this matter.
Often, when it comes to defining the concept of soul, it means an incorporeal entity contained within the human body. Psychologists say that the soul is the mind, emotions, character, perception, thinking and human memory. If one of these components is missing, then it is believed that there is emptiness in life.
Philosophers most often admit or deny the immortality of the soul. Some religions claim that the soul is an immortal essence and only a person can possess it. Others claim that all organisms, without exception, are endowed with a soul. Therefore, the state of spiritual emptiness can manifest itself in any creature, including non-biological objects.
If we consider the soul from the point of view of science, scientists have come to the conclusion that it is a certain construct that denotes a certain substance located directly in the human brain. Unfortunately, scientists have still not been able to find evidence or refutation of the existence of the soul as a higher entity.
