Are you feeling fulfilled?
“If you are feeling hungry, drink a glass of water, because you are probably just thirsty”
I was given this piece of advice about 20 years ago and it drifts in and out of my consciousness like most anecdotal pieces of advice. Sometimes I will actually try it and, to my surprize, I find that my hunger is indeed fulfilled for a short while.
As humans we have a hard time understanding the language of our bodies. We stay up late, even though our bodies tell us we are tired. We push past inconvenient pain with medication. Some of us cope with stress-filled days with a glass of wine. In so many ways, we do not really acknowledge or even explore these subtle, bodily cues.
The “glass of water advice” made me think about the times in my life when I feel hungry. In my moments of hunger, What am I hungry for? Is it food, another glass of water, or is it perhaps something deeper?
This past month, I decided to rename my reoccurring feelings of hunger as reoccurring feelings of emptiness. The question I have been asking myself is “what is leaving you feeling empty?” Is it a lack of food, is it a lack of water, or is it something that is not so easily revealed?
There are so many ways to fill our emptiness; shopping, travelling, social media, Netflix, Skip the dishes, and a plethora of other tasty treats and intellectual distractions. Any inkling of emptiness can quickly be filled and then we can move on.
What if that empty feeling is about something more?
A need for companionship?
A need for solitude?
A need for some fun?
A need for a hug?
A need for community?
A need to be seen or heard?
A need to connect to nature?
A need to connect with a higher power?
As my good friend and mentor, David, would remind me, “human beings are gifted with the faculty of free choice”. Simple words that many of us forget. So of course, I am happy to remind. But before we take advantage of this gift of choice, perhaps, we could take a moment to be with that strange feeling of emptiness, and in doing so, we may uncover what it is we truly require to feel fulfilled.
Dale Bially
Inscapes Centre for Enneagram Studies