Is it okay to feel empty sometimes?

Yes. It is okay and common to feel empty sometimes.

I think it makes a lot of sense that so many of us can feel empty sometimes. First, we spend so much time trying to get people to like and accept us. We try so hard to be “good enough”. All that energy focused on other people at the expense of ourselves and what we truly want and need can leave us feeling empty.

I choose to understand that feeling of emptiness as a knock at the door. A knock trying to tell me that I am disconnected from something really important within me that wants to be out in the open. Oftentimes, it’s feelings that I think aren’t okay to be felt or expressed. If you feel empty, what aren’t you feeling?

I think that feeling of emptiness is part of the human experience. And while it can feel really bad or uncomfortable there is this opportunity to get to know it and to listen to what it has to say and what it wants.

Next time you feel it maybe close your eyes and take a deep breath and ask, “what do you want to tell me?” And then just listen for the answer. Also, move your body. Feel your aliveness through movement. It is almost always that it will shift the energy in some way and open the door to some understanding about that feeling of emptiness.

Aimee Falchuk