Soul Hunger: The Silent Epidemic Of The 21st Century.

Soul hunger refers to a deep, spiritual longing or a sense of missing something essential in our lives. It is frequently associated with feelings of emptiness or a lack of fulfillment that material possessions or external achievements cannot satisfy. It often manifests as dissatisfaction, lack of purpose, or a yearning for something more meaningful.

Soul hunger arises when there is a gap between how we show up in our lives and what our soul intended for us.

I experienced the stress of soul hunger long before I could understand what it was trying to tell me. I share more about my personal journey in Does Your Life Lack Meaning And Purpose? You’re Not Alone!

I had the privilege of interviewing some amazing women for my book, Awakening A Woman’s Soul: The Power of Meditation and Mindfulness to Transform Your Life. As I  listened to and transcribed their stories, patterns emerged.

There was a common thread between these women’s stories (I’ve heard similar feelings about soul hunger from men) and mine. There was a sense that they were hungry for something, a feeling that something was missing in their lives.

What was the source of this hunger I’d heard repeatedly in these interviews?

A few days later, as I was conditioning my hair in the shower, it came to me: Soul hunger!

It explained what so many people described and helped me understand what I had experienced.

It was soul hunger that led me out of retirement and soul hunger that got me curious about meditation.

I understood that our souls, like our bodies, must be fed to flourish and thrive.

I also believe that soul hunger is a silent epidemic in our society. Many of us experience this spiritual stress, yet we have no idea what it is.

I hear people say daily that something is missing, and they have no idea what it is. They’re willing to make some changes but don’t know what to change. In the article, Understanding Soul Hunger: The 4 Core Causes Of Inner Stress I share 4 of the most common reasons people feel this soul hunger.

Having awareness about the signs and symptoms of soul hunger is essential if we are to be successful in alleviating it before it turns into soul pain and impacts our emotional, physical and spiritual health.

In an effort to alleviate the stress of my soul hunger, I got curious about how soul hunger compares to a physical sensation of hunger.

How does soul hunger compare to physical hunger?

To fully describe and explore this concept of soul hunger, I decided to determine how actual physical hunger is described. I came across words such as craving, desire, longing, urge, yearning, ache, emptiness, void, thirst, vacancy, empty, lacking, and want, to name just a few.

It became eerily familiar to me when I realized that these exact words were what I heard daily from people who were not experiencing physical hunger. They shared a need that was being described in the same way but wasn’t physical and was from a different source, more spiritual.

I was then reminded that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Meaning we are both spiritual and human. Perhaps the physical hunger that people experience can help us explain spiritual needs. Maybe those words describing how it feels to be physically hungry can help us understand when our soul is hungry.

I turned to Google to explore phrases that people used when they described a sense of physical hunger:

My energy would desert me, and weakness would take over.

I was so tired and lethargic.

My brain didn’t work correctly, and it was hard to concentrate.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

There was a nagging feeling of emptiness.

I had physical symptoms such as being irritable, dizziness, and nausea.

Then, I went to my transcribed notes and found the following from some people. One was in a corporate job and was miserable, and the other felt disconnected from her husband of 40 years:

          I felt tired all the time and would get sick with infections.

I needed a “brain restart” because it wasn’t working correctly.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

I felt empty inside.

I had a longing for things to be different.

I was showing signs of stress.

When I compared the above descriptions, I could see the overlap.

We’ve created a society that values physical needs (and rightly so) and ignores spiritual needs.

It’s as if we’ve developed a mindset that says, “If we can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” We can value and acknowledge physical hunger because there’s an actual cause, but we have greater difficulty recognizing soul hunger because the reason is not entirely apparent.

Soul hunger is best understood as a deeply meaningful experience.

Just as physical hunger is a sign that we need nourishment, soul hunger is a sign that something needs to shift. This shift reminds me of the documentary The Shift, featuring Wayne Dyer. In it, he describes the transition from ambition to meaning, which represents the shift from ego to soul. Because we don’t change when we’re comfortable, things like soul hunger often trigger this need for deeper meaning.

The challenge with soul hunger is its signs and symptoms are so vague that they are often misdiagnosed or missed altogether. In this post,  The Call of Your Soul: 10 Signs Your Soul is Speaking to You, I share some insights that shed further light on this mystery phenomenon of soul hunger.

Soul hunger is ultimately a wake-up call that may manifest as physical or emotional health issues, relationship struggles, and jobs that feel like they’re draining our life force energy. In the post, What If Depression Is A Summons From The Soul For Awakening? I share a new perspective on depression and that perhaps it’s a form of soul hunger beckoning us to live more fully and love more deeply.

When we neglect the non-physical parts of ourselves and our essence, we will eventually experience this profound inner ache in our souls. It becomes a threshold to live with a deeper sense of vitality, connection, and purpose.

It’s a beautiful reminder that we are spiritual beings having a human experience: an invitation and a call to connect with our true selves and what’s calling us forward.

In the following video, I share a personal message about soul hunger:

(Original publication; December 1, 2017, Edited; August 19, 2021)