Something is missing in your life, isn’t it?
You’re working hard, trying to get ahead, doing everything you possibly can to make life just a little bit better. You’re trying to keep it all balanced, though. You won’t be one of those people who commits every waking second to work and the pursuit of a career. Not you. You’ve got it figured out. You even make time to exercise, eat right, meditate, or maybe spend time with friends and family.
You’ve got it all figured out… except for that one stupid thing that keeps tugging at your heart. You don’t really know what it is, but it is there, and it is driving you a little crazy. Yeah, I know. I get that feeling sometimes too. It is often mistaken as unhappiness, fatigue, depression, or being stuck in a rut. Many people will go off and do wild vacations or try things they would never try in a million years just to see if those activities settle the strange, inexplicable emptiness they feel inside.
When they return to the real world, though, the problem is still there, still nagging at them. Maybe they think they didn’t go “extreme” enough, and will push themselves harder. Or maybe they take it in a totally different direction and put more time into meditation, or even trying to manifest happiness in their lives.
Does any of this sound familiar? Or do you have it under control? I’m guessing since you’re still reading, you don’t. It’s okay. Neither do I. In fact, neither do most people.
So, what is this mysterious thing that is pulling at you, leaving you feeling empty and unfulfilled in a life that would, from the outside, seem all but amazing? It’s the pursuit of happiness. Before you click away from the page, thinking that this is another article about how when you stop pursuing things, that is when they come to you, don’t.
It’s not about that at all.
We are constantly presented with things that we believe will make us happy. New cars, flashier televisions, prettier women or men, houses, furniture, more money, exotic vacations, and a myriad of things that go along with that stuff. We are pounded by books, blogs, and billboards about how we can get everything we want in life, and live happier, better, and wealthier.
The simple truth is, we are so focused on getting what we want that we forget about everyone else in the world around us. And therein lies the key to that empty feeling inside. Right now, there are people who are hungry. And not just in Africa or India. They might be within a square mile of you. There are kids who don’t have a decent place to sleep. There is only one thing that truly fills the emptiness. Love. There is only one cause of inner emptiness: a lack of love.
But it is not a lack of someone else’s love that causes your emptiness. Inner emptiness is caused by self-abandonment … by not loving yourself.
Inner emptiness comes from a lack of connection with your spiritual source of love… from not opening to the love-that-is-God and bringing that love to yourself through true thought and loving action in your own behalf.
When you abandon yourself by judging yourself, ignoring your feelings by staying in your head, numbing your feelings through substance and process addictions and making others responsible for your feelings and for loving you, you will feel empty. You are causing your own emptiness by your self-abandonment.
Your ego-wounded self is filled with false beliefs regarding who you are. Your wounded self may see you as inadequate, unlovable, not good enough, not important, selfish, bad, wrong. Your wounded self operates from core shame… that you are intrinsically flawed.
These are programmed beliefs that have no basis in truth, but they may be running your life. When you believe that you are not good enough, then you turn to others and to addictions to try to feel okay… to fill the emptiness that you are causing with your self-judgment/self-abandonment.
The truth of who you are comes only from your personal source of spiritual guidance… whatever that is for you. When you open to learning with a source of higher guidance about the truth of who you are, and about what is loving action toward yourself and others, you open to the love-that-is-God coming into your heart and filling your inner emptiness.
If you believe God is keeping score or is punishing you… fire him and get a new God. To me, God is goodness and light … an energy source that wants me to live the best life I can while I’m dancing on earth. By finding the God of your understanding you’ll find what’s needed to fill life’s emptiness.
This is my journey… this is my life.
Rob Cantrell
Rob Cantrell 