How can a feeling of emptiness during depression be helpful?

Emptiness will make you more original and interesting. Why? Because when you are not empty you are full -- full of other people's ideas and expectations or full of your own comfortable and possibly outworn understandings.

Think of an upturned hand with nothing in it. An open hand can be extended to receive any number of good things. The common expression "empty handed" usually has a negative connotation.

This exercise will give you a tool for renaming and rethinking the negative associations many people in our culture assign to emptiness. Every time you feel the emptiness, tell yourself it is an opening to something new coming into your life. Think of yourself as speaking a new language, and translate the experience into a new language of "openness."

Practice tolerating the emptiness for longer and longer periods of time. When you can tolerate the emptiness for five minutes at a time, set aside five minutes a day for one week to practice connecting with your feeling of emptiness and tolerating it. After doing this successfully for one week, set aside ten minutes a day to practice sitting with your emptiness.

Continue to remind yourself that the emptiness is actually openness. Notice the thoughts that frequently intrude on your practice of openness. After you practice this for two weeks you may notice a theme that keeps recurring.

Sandra kept returning to thoughts about her fitness and other mothers' requests for her guidance in staying fit through motherhood. This turned into an openness toward a new professional and personal vocation. In a journal, write the following question at the top of a page: "What new thing am I opening up to in my life?"

Write for as long as you can without inhibiting yourself. In your journal, write the following question at the top of another page: "What do I have to let go of in order to allow this new thing to enter into my life?" By the time you have gone through each of these steps, you may have become more comfortable with this new language for understanding your inner world.

You may find that the benefits of translating emptiness into openness include not having to spend your life energy running away from the feeling of emptiness. Try to notice the behaviors you no longer seem to need. By paying attention to naturally occurring changes in your behavior, you will increase your motivation to practice translating your symptoms of depression into meaningful experiences.

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