Feelings of emptiness

[jwstone]

I've been feeling this empty feeling lately. I'm not sure how to even explain it. I feel it mainly when I'm in contemplation by myself. It's very disturbing honestly. It doesn't bring peace to my mind, more like fear. Almost like a loneliness. No matter how many people are around or what I'm doing, this feeling can overtake me. I am wondering if others have experienced similar and can explain what this is?

[santa100]

I've been feeling this empty feeling lately. I'm not sure how to even explain it. I feel it mainly when I'm in contemplation by myself. It's very disturbing honestly. It doesn't bring peace to my mind, more like fear. Almost like a loneliness. No matter how many people are around or what I'm doing, this feeling can overtake me. I am wondering if others have experienced similar and can explain what this is?

Try not to involve the "I", "mine", or "myself" during your contemplation session. Just be aware of the Five Aggregates processes. So instead of: "I've been experiencing this empty feeling", it should be just: "empty feeling arises.... empty feeling subsides....".

[confusedlayman]

I've been feeling this empty feeling lately. I'm not sure how to even explain it. I feel it mainly when I'm in contemplation by myself. It's very disturbing honestly. It doesn't bring peace to my mind, more like fear. Almost like a loneliness. No matter how many people are around or what I'm doing, this feeling can overtake me. I am wondering if others have experienced similar and can explain what this is?

just another impermanent feeling

[SarathW]

I've been feeling this empty feeling lately. I'm not sure how to even explain it. I feel it mainly when I'm in contemplation by myself. It's very disturbing honestly. It doesn't bring peace to my mind, more like fear. Almost like a loneliness. No matter how many people are around or what I'm doing, this feeling can overtake me. I am wondering if others have experienced similar and can explain what this is?

This is one or many of the five hindrances.

You should try to find some good friends. If possible talk to a good monk.
Go for a walk and stay in the sun.
Make sure you eat the right food.
Do some exercise

It is great you brought up this in this forum. The most important is that you are aware of yourself.

If the problem persists perhaps you have to speak to a good psychologist.

[pegembara]

I've been feeling this empty feeling lately. I'm not sure how to even explain it. I feel it mainly when I'm in contemplation by myself. It's very disturbing honestly. It doesn't bring peace to my mind, more like fear. Almost like a loneliness. No matter how many people are around or what I'm doing, this feeling can overtake me. I am wondering if others have experienced similar and can explain what this is?

Sounds like the beginning of depression and loneliness.
In loneliness, there is the perception of being alone.
That perception can be present even when you have family and friends around.

“Loneliness is not necessarily about being alone. Instead, “it is the perception of being alone and isolated that matters most” and is “a state of mind”.
“Inability to find meaning in one's life”, “Feeling of negative and unpleasant” and “A subjective, negative feeling related to the deficient social relations” “A feeling of disconnectedness or isolation.” etc., are the other ways to define loneliness.

There are things to do to deal with loneliness and it doesn't involve more meditation, but more a re-connection with family and friends. Or the community of spiritual seekers even.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... d%E2%80%9D.

[justpractice]

I've been feeling this empty feeling lately. I'm not sure how to even explain it. I feel it mainly when I'm in contemplation by myself. It's very disturbing honestly. It doesn't bring peace to my mind, more like fear. Almost like a loneliness. No matter how many people are around or what I'm doing, this feeling can overtake me. I am wondering if others have experienced similar and can explain what this is?

Unpleasant feeling can take on an infinite amount of “shapes and sizes,” so to speak, but it’s not really the practitioner’s concern to figure out and explain those particulars. The suffering in regard to that unpleasant feeling is always on the level of one’s attitude, which would be an attitude of craving against that unpleasant feeling, or an attitude of entitlement to be free of discomfort. It’s on this general and often unquestioned level of the experience, not on the particular level of explanations and psychologizations, that the practitioner should be developing himself in regard to. And this development would be the development of virtue, or a mind that’s strong enough to “take it” without acting out (even if that acting out is on the level of simply trying to find out why a particular feeling is there).