Filling Your Emptiness — Your New Life
Introduction
Regardless of your current life situation, everyone has an “emptiness” that creates doubt, disappointment, sadness, loneliness, pain. The “emptiness” continually surfaces, causing personal questioning, self-doubt, confusion that can cause discouragement, conflict, turmoil, anger, aggression, oppression, depression, rejection, self-harm.
It matters not your age, race, physique, education, finance, or social affluence—popular or neglected, everyone is continually haunted by their “emptiness.”
The people around us and our environment influence our reaction to our emptiness. We seek to fill our emptiness. We try anything and everything that we are exposed to in an attempt to achieve happiness, success, fulfillment.
We seek to fill our emptiness by overworking, overexercising, over-entertaining, overeating, social media addiction, shopping addiction, gambling addiction, alcohol, drugs, opioids, pornography. None provide the long-lasting happiness, self-worth, or fulfillment we seek. Many of our repeated practices become habits, addictions, cycles.
There is only one answer and choice to truly, continually, and successfully filling your emptiness with what provides the life of acceptance and everlasting love you seek.
God says,
You know that in the past the way you were living was useless. It was a way of life you learned from those who lived before you. (1 Peter 1:18 ERV)
This way of life was handed down to you by your own people, but, I set you free from this empty way of life. (1 Peter 1:18 NIRV)
I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. I have continued loving you with a kindness that never fails. (Jeremiah 31:3)
God’s will and plan for your new life:
Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. My purpose is to give you a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10)
What is a cycle?
• Any complete series of occurrences that repeats or is repeated.
• A sequence of changing states that, upon completion, produces a final state identical to the original one.
What is a tradition?
• A long-established or inherited way of thinking or acting.
The handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc. from generation to generation, especiallyby word of mouth or by practice.
Tradition implies voluntary participation, choice. One can choose whether or not to continue. One is not bound or destined to accept, practice, or continue such.
Out of tradition, many people will not walk under a ladder, fearing bad luck.
Many people practice a tradition of washing their hands before meals for hygiene purposes.
Many people say a blessing of thanks before their meals.
Many people believe wearing shoes in one’s house is courteous, while many countries feel it is rude.
Many Christians participate in Halloween, while many Christians do not.
Traditions, over changing times, economies, and cultures, can become very confusing. They may even become stumbling blocks or breaking points of ideology and friendships: interracial marriage, interfaith marriage, common law marriage, etc.
But the key to traditions is their voluntary nature.
Cycles, on the other hand, are a reoccurring event regardless of one’s belief or willingness of acceptance or personal choice.
A successful plant life cycle is the same in any part of our world, and it does not vary due to changing circumstances. There are five stages of the plant life cycle: seed germination, growth, reproduction, pollination, and seed-spreading stages.
A year is traditionally comprised of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The attributes of each season can vary greatly between Alaska, Colorado, and Florida, but the seasons are a regular cycle event.
A winter in Alaska and Florida could not be more different. Yet a winter in Colorado, overall, is greatly different from either of those two at times, yet possibly similar at other times.
Some people believe there are also inescapable human addictions, including kleptomania, workaholism, alcoholism, drug addiction, abuse (domestic, child, sexual), etc. It is widely believed, even clinically, that an alcoholic’s children will be prone to alcoholism, that a child abuse victim will become a child abuser, etc.
What is an addiction?
Practice: the action or process of performing or doing something.
Habit: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until
it has become almost involuntary.
Vice: immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behavior.
Addiction: craving, dependence, obsession, enslavement; state of being compulsively committed to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit forming, such as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
Types of addiction:
• Food addiction
• Sex addiction
• Internet addiction
• Pornography addiction
• Technology addiction (computers, laptops, tablets, pads,cell phones, etc.)
• Social media addiction
• Video game addiction
• Work addiction
• Exercise addiction
• Spiritual obsession (not to be confused with religious devotion)
• Seeking pain
• Cutting
• Shopping addiction
• Gambling addiction
• Drug addiction: alcohol, tobacco, opioids, prescription drugs (sedatives, hypnotics, or anxiolytics like sleeping pills and tranquilizers), cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, hallucinogens, inhalants, phencyclidine (PCP, etc.).
List of impulsive disorders (where impulses cannot be resisted, which could be considered a type of addiction):
Intermittent explosive disorder (compulsive aggressive and assault acts)
Kleptomania (compulsive stealing)
Pyromania (compulsive setting of fires)
There are many similarities between substance addiction and behavioral addiction. Some of the similarities include the excitement or “high” resulting from use or behavior, craving the high, development of tolerance leading to increased use or repeated behavior, loss of control, and psychological and physical withdrawal symptoms.
Signs of addiction
Addiction manifests itself differently in each person, and signs of addiction vary based on what the person is addicted to. Drug addiction changes the body, specifically the brain, and can have visible physical side effects. Behavioral addiction does not exhibit the same physical symptoms that accompany drug and alcohol addiction or substance abuse.
Dependency is when a person needs something in order to function normally and is often accompanied by increased tolerance and symptoms of withdrawal when the drug or behavior is no longer present. It is a gateway to addiction. A person can be dependent without being addicted if it does not cause a person to engage in compulsive or harmful behavior. If you find yourself or a loved one becoming dependent on any substance or behavior, it is important to seek help as soon as possible to avoid getting to the point of addiction, which is even more difficult to overcome.
Addiction, whether physical or behavioral, impacts many parts of a person’s life. Repeated use of substances or repeated behaviors results in physical brain changes, leading to impaired learning, decision-making, memory, and judgment.
Over time, addiction causes organ damage and increases risk of contracting a communicable disease. Addiction is known to cause depression and/or suicide and affects relationships with family and friends. Legal problems and financial woes are also common issues that result from addiction.
Thus, traditions are voluntary. Cycles can be repetitive and seemingly involuntary. Addictions can become physiological.
In reality, some human conditions (bipolar, alcoholism, etc.) can be physiologically prompted, but can be treated. Other conditions, such as abuse, is voluntary, but may need assistance to “break its cycle” of reoccurrence.
“Cycling” from one generation to the next is not predestined and can be broken/treated successfully. This information will be discussed in detail with examples, symptoms, practices, treatments, and sources for “breaking the cycle” and creating your new life.
Just because my father’s violent alcoholism was seemingly passed from his father and may have been physiologically “triggered” and could most certainly have a case for psychological cause, his abuse was voluntary. I, with great care and assistance, did not become a violent alcoholic or physical abuser.