A Gentle Space for Feeling Empty
On Depression, Numbness & Emptiness
Emptiness has a particular weight. You would think that feeling nothing would be light, but it is not. The hollow place inside has its own gravity, pulling everything toward it. You go through your days with this vacancy, this sense that something essential is missing from the center of you. This space is for that emptiness.
Emptiness is not nothing. It is the presence of absence — the awareness that something should be there but is not. It can follow loss, trauma, depression, or prolonged stress. Sometimes it arrives without clear cause, settling in uninvited.
This meditation does not try to fill the emptiness. It simply acknowledges it and offers companionship within it.
What Inner Emptiness Feels Like
Emptiness is difficult to describe because it is defined by absence. But those who experience it recognize its particular quality.
- A hollow feeling in the chest or stomach
- Going through motions without feeling present
- Nothing seems to matter or satisfy
- A sense of disconnection from yourself
- Feeling like something essential is missing
- Unable to identify what would help
If this describes your experience, you are not alone. Emptiness is a recognized experience, and it is not your fault.
Why We Feel Empty
Emptiness can arise from many sources. Depression often empties us of feeling. Loss can hollow out the place where someone or something used to be. Burnout depletes until nothing is left. Sometimes meaning itself seems to drain away, leaving us questioning what any of it is for.
The causes matter less than the experience. You feel empty. That is real, regardless of why.
A Meditation for Emptiness
This meditation does not promise to fill you. It offers presence within the emptiness.
Lord, I feel empty. There is a hollow place inside me where fullness should be. I do not know how it got there or how to fill it. Things that used to bring satisfaction bring nothing. I move through my days with this vacancy at my center. Meet me in this emptiness. You once hovered over the void before creation. You are not afraid of emptiness. Dwell with me in this hollow place. If it is to be filled, let it be filled in Your time, with what You choose. If I am to remain empty for now, give me companionship in the waiting. Do not let me be alone in this void.
After the meditation, do not demand that you feel different. Simply notice the emptiness without judgment. It is where you are, and God is there too.
Living with Emptiness
When emptiness persists, these approaches may help you navigate it without making it worse.
- Be gentle with yourself — emptiness is genuinely difficult
- Maintain routines even when they feel meaningless
- Stay connected to at least one person
- Seek professional help if emptiness is overwhelming
- Allow small pleasures without demanding they fill you
- Remember that emptiness often passes with time
Emptiness may make room for something new. Or it may simply pass on its own. Either way, you do not have to face it alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is feeling empty the same as depression?
Emptiness is a common symptom of depression, but they are not identical. You can feel empty without being clinically depressed, and depression can manifest in other ways. If emptiness is persistent and severe, professional evaluation can help clarify.
How do I fill the emptiness?
This is the difficult truth: emptiness cannot always be filled on demand. Sometimes it fills gradually as circumstances change or as healing progresses. Trying too hard to fill it often doesn't work. Gentle patience may serve better than aggressive filling.
Does God understand emptiness?
Scripture speaks of God creating from void, of Jesus experiencing abandonment on the cross. Emptiness is not foreign to God. Your empty places are places God can inhabit, even when you cannot feel His presence there.
Will I feel full again?
Most people who experience emptiness do eventually feel fullness return. It may come gradually, in small moments at first, then more fully over time. The timeline varies, but emptiness rarely lasts forever.
Related Reflections
- On Something Feeling Missing — Naming the unnamed absence.
- A Dreamweaving for When You Feel Nothing — Meeting numbness with presence.
- On Functioning but Not Living — Going through motions.
- Browse All Reflections — Find more quiet spaces for the searching soul.