That Empty Feeling...

    I am sitting here tonight and waiting for a cup of mint green tea to brew and thinking about a feeling. Honestly, I am thinking of the lack of a feeling. It is safe to say that we have all felt a feeling of emptiness before, and I don’t mean hunger, I mean an internal emptiness. It is best described as when you feel hollow inside, like nothing you do really matters.

    I know I have felt this feeling and I am sure many of you have as well. I struggled with the feeling a great deal in my early adult years and at times I still do. I have spent a great deal of time combating that feeling and its many different forms. I think we as people can feel empty whenever different things are lacking in our life.

 

  

 

  I know that one of the biggest times I have to battle the emptiness is when I am single and alone. I think that when we are single we believe there is something wrong with us and we start a quest to pinpoint what it is. We begin to analyze every aspect of ourselves and try to change anything we can in hopes of finding a way to fill that emptiness. I believe that we fail to recognize what it is we have to offer to the world because that emptiness consumes us all and begins to break us down as people. The problem is that we have been lead to believe that we are failing because we are alone. Television, Storybooks, and even Music have convinced us that love is the all-powerful and without it you are an outcast. The world isn’t a fairytale and we are not worthless because we are single. We need to learn that this time alone is a time for us to grow and strengthen ourselves, a time to appreciate who we are and discover what we really have to offer the world. This may be one of the hardest forms of emptiness to combat but once you do there is so much you can learn about yourself.

    Loneliness is not the only reason we can feel empty, another form is feeling unaccomplished. When you look at your life and see this routine for every day and every night you can start to feel empty. That feeling of going nowhere and striving for nothing can really bring a person down. I think a big factor to do with this is also one that may be hard to beat. Technology, it has given us the ability of instant gratification and because of that our long sighted goals have come to a near extinction because we constantly want to feel good and can achieve small boosts of that feeling quickly now simply by finding a funny video online or reading a post on Facebook. Imagine it as a cigarette smoker, 5 minutes of quick endorphins that perk you up for a short while before you do it again. The more you do it, the more of a tolerance you build and then suddenly it becomes a constant in order to feel good. Instant gratification has become the number one drug of America and it is killing our drive to achieve bigger things. It saps away the feeling of a big accomplishment or anything we do that gives us a reason to live.

    I think it is time we find ways to stop feeling empty at such young ages and start enjoying the things we can accomplish. We stop seeking out instant gratification and basic human connection but instead we take on a big task and feel that surge of power from completing it. We put ourselves out there and truly get to know people before writing them off or using them for our own endorphin rush.  I say we all need to find our true selves, our true passions, and our true goals and make sure that each and every one of them meets completion. That is how we overcome any feeling of emptiness, to always be pushing a little further or trying a little more.