“My life feels empty and hollow” is one of the most common things people bring to coaching, in one form or another, and it is worth taking seriously rather than dismissing as a passing mood. This is the first in a short series exploring it through the lens of the MythoSelf Process.
Table of Contents
Why Life Feels Empty and Hollow: A Moral Code Problem
The starting premise is that how successful and fulfilled you feel is largely governed by the moral code you operate from, whether or not you have examined it consciously.
Within the MythoSelf Process the foundational code is reverence for life, which requires developing a genuine sense that there is something greater than you, that you belong to. We call this Greater Than Self, and it is typically the first thing a facilitator works to establish.
Practice One: Noticing Evidence of Life and Decay
Throughout your day, actively notice evidence of life (growth, flourishing) and equally evidence of decay and fading. Give these your full attention when you meet them, even briefly, blocking out other thoughts.
Done consistently, a feeling that used to only flicker through you starts to grow into something steadier: a sense of inward peace and connection.
Practice Two: Replacing Judgment With Respect
When you catch yourself criticising or judging someone else’s words or actions, pause. Remind yourself that respect for others is nourishment for your own sense of self, and that judging someone’s weaknesses costs you something rather than elevating you.
Practise entering into what is good in the other person instead, guarding against disparaging thoughts that seem to promise superiority but deliver isolation.
What Changes When You Practise Consistently
This shift in attention tends to open up a world that was quietly closed off before. It happens not through effort of will alone but through where you place your attention, moment to moment.
If your life feels empty and hollow, the feeling is information, not a verdict. It points to where attention and values have drifted apart, and it responds well to deliberate, repeated practice.
3 Simple Practices When Life Feels Empty and Hollow
Keep these within reach as you work through the series.
- Notice evidence of life and of decay during your day, giving each your full attention.
- When you judge someone, pause and look for what is good in them.
- Choose one practice and keep it going for a week before adding another.
Start with whichever practice appeals most and keep it simple. When life feels empty and hollow, the aim is not to feel better at once but to begin placing your attention where growth is. A few weeks of steady practice is often enough to notice a real difference in how connected you feel.
It also helps to share what you are noticing with someone you trust. Saying aloud that your life feels empty and hollow, and describing which practice you are trying, makes it easier to keep going and gives the feeling somewhere to land other than inside your own head.
A final thought on life feels empty and hollow: it rewards small, repeated practice far more than one big effort.
What to Expect From This Series
This series is practical. Each part gives you something to try, and each exercise builds on the one before. By the end you will have a way of reaching your best state, bringing it into ordinary life and protecting it when challenged. You do not have to do everything at once: choose one practice from this post and keep it going for a week.
Continue to Part 2, read What Is the MythoSelf Process?, or book a free consultation to talk it through with Charles. For background on why feelings of emptiness are widely discussed, see this overview of existential crises.
