emptiness: friend or enemy?
a most excellent blog post:
“Fear of unpunctuated silence, or emptiness sucks.”
on coping mechanisms, routines, and things we do to fill what feel like “empty” spaces in our lives instead of just enjoying the empty space. why is it so hard for some of us to relax or be still? why do we fill our lives with chatter and objects and television and twitter and txts and drama and shopping and eating and drinking and smoking and seeking? what is it that we are trying to fill, avoid, or find? emptiness as a state of being isn’t necessarily negative, although most people interpret it that way. achieving emptiness is what meditation is all about – clearing your mind, just being. but for many people, “emptiness” feels like loneliness and isolation because of what the emptiness reminds us of: what’s missing.
her blog, Fake Plastic Fish, is generally focused on her mission to reduce the amount of plastic in her life, so while this particular post is a bit off-topic, it’s really not. to some extent, for some of us, focusing on those kinds of things is another way we fill the spaces in our lives, and while it seems like a good cause, if you become obsessive about it, as arduous points out in her recent post about compromise, whilst saving the planet/sitting on your moral high horse, you might be hurting your relationships, and so yes, extreme “environmentalism” can become just another crutch, another wall to put up around you. this is definitely something i have been struggling with.
i fill my spaces with a lot of things. blogging is one of them. i know this blog gets preachy at times, and i always have to reel myself back in after those stretches. i struggle with wondering why i can’t just be silent.
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