Why do we feel so empty?

Many people move though life trying to avoid feeling bad so much that they end up skipping most of the good too. Feelings flatten to a shallow range, where excitement is the drug of choice.

You know who I’m talking about. The adrenaline junkies, the travel obsessed, the sex addicts, the list goes on. Live is good as long as they are entertained by an ever evolving rotation of thrills.

What happens when that stops? Stuck in lockdown, had to slow down because of work, new baby, illness… Life happens, and how we handle its natural lulls is what differentiates the alive from the addicted.

The addicted will lose their shit. They will get annoyed, aggressive, restless. It’s everyone’s fault and the job/country/partner/world is just too boring for them. The solution? Get a new one! The rotation continues.

There’s a difference between wanting to experience different things, finding joy in that, embracing the complexity of the world, and anxiously filling your brain with newness so you don’t have to face the aching emptiness that is waiting for you at the end of the ride.

Please travel! Please have fun, be wild, be free! Do it because you love the world. Love all of it - the thrills, the silence, the rapid changes, and the routine. All of it together makes for life that is worth living.

But if you find yourself scared of silence…

I don’t have to tell you, you already know that the excitement is wearing off. Like a drug, it takes a bigger dose, a stronger substance to take you where you don’t feel the emptiness anymore. The emptiness will grow faster than you’re able to fill it, and you know it.

Stepping into all of your feelings is what will close the void. It’s a painful process, because everything you’ve been suppressing will come rushing back, starting with the worst of it. I hope one day you’ll be brave enough to do this work, I promise it’s worth it at the end.