Liz Mckeno8,

It does sound like a problem of the spirit, not necessarily of the formal religious type. It sounds like life is going well, the only thing I can think of to perhaps consider about your life is this, if you want meaningful things in your life, create them, nothing has value that you do not give it to, put those skills to work making memories that will warm you in the autumn of your years, or you could get a dog---------not as silly as you might first think,

First, I would consider the normality of the experiences you have. I don't know how normal or abnormal they are as I am not having the experiences, but humans do normally go through periods of relative bliss and relative depression.

Mostly, though, just examine the problem. Check up for yourself and ask why you feel empty, what could fill the apparent void, what should fill the apparent void.

Nothing really beats sitting down and focusing on the problem. The trick is to be productive. If we spend our time dwelling - oh, this is so terrible, so terrible, so terrible - we just makes ourselves sick. Look deeply.

Yes, that's the seed of desire and you've arrived at a place in your unfolding that you've recognized the emptiness and seek to fulfill it.

Many times what will happen is people will fill this emptiness with religion or some addiction. I tend to believe the emptiness inside comes from us not knowing ourselves, our creator and the meaning of our existence. Most importantly knowing ourselves and loving ourselves.

Welcome to the PhilosophyForum.com! Hope to see you get involved.

Welcome Liz.McKen08,

In a way, your post seems to subtlety imply your problem more than just being expressly stated. Is your life going well even though you have a great job and have just recently been married? Sounds like you are in the middle of an existential dilemma. There are a bunch of ways to seek deeper meaning, but I think you may find existentialism especially useful. Specifically, I think you would like a book entitled, "Man's search for meaning" by Viktor Frankl. Frankl introduced a decisive mode of logotherapy which focuses on introspection from his experiences as a concentration camp survivor. I don't think anyone has as much claim to an existential crisis as someone like him.

Start a new thread and explain this emptiness in more detail. It seems as though the most beneficial thing to do is to hash it out on paper (well?screen is the more appropriate term). You may get a few helpful answers to consider. Read the topics and comments and cut and paste what is useful to your search. But in the end, it does not even matter if other people respond with useful comments or not because what may matter most is that others are commiserating with you in the pursuit of some meaning, however deep that is.