How are some of the ways we humans use to fill the void?
For example I would consider shopping as one way to fill the loneliness in life because somehow dressing up attractively helps me feel good about myself and gets me the attention and validation from people around me.
…we do many many things to fill the void that is life… beyond what are main directives ascertain we do - I undertake many many things to fill the void that we call life: procuring, reading, learning, socialising, drinking, working-out, partying, flooding my senses with visual and audio, eating, thinking, procrastinating… I think I’m best at the procrastinating 
Got it. But somehow those activities doesn’t feel like filling up the void, it all feels like something the society is requiring us to do but you are right. Thanks for replying
What void?
There is only a void if you let there be a void.
I fill the void by removing it.
How do you remove the void. I mean people find friends,life partners and activities to kill our time on this earth. Isn’t that some way of filling the void.
I think that pretty much everything we do is reducible to ‘filling the void’.
You just sound lonely. Remember those times when you were happy or having fun or in a new relationship? I bet you didn’t think about “the void” then.
Life IS the filling of a void. Stop worrying about it and just go do it.
I’m doing it and right now
The void is filled with the will to fill it.
Basically the way Buddha talked about (i’m not a Buddhist but its the best way of putting it). The void is created by wanting something that is missing. If through willpower and focus you can cease to want something, the void that desire created ceases to exist.
Nicely put.
I’m reminded of a joke:
When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realised that God doesn’t work that way…
So I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.
I agree with this. When I put my hands in my pockets I’m filling the void. Why can’t I just let my hands dangle uselessly at my side? When I bite my fingernails I’m filling the void. When I post on an internet forum I’m filling the void. All such diversions from our basic directionlessness are “filling the void”. I don’t think it’s necessarily the case though, that everything we do must consist of such diversions. The Buddha was mentioned previously here - Khrone paraphrased “If through willpower and focus you can cease to want something, the void that desire created ceases to exist.” I’d emphasize though (and I think this is the Buddhist view) that it’s not so much about overcoming desires as it is accepting the uncomfortable quality of desire - the texture of desire - without diverting. The experience of living is uncomfortable. That is the “void” that we “fill” through diverting. But in our incessant attempts to avoid the basic truths of life, maybe we actually help to foster anxiety and depression. The Buddhist writer Pema Chodron speaks eloquently on this subject. For instance, here is a review I found of her book “The Places that Scare You”.
I don’t get it. What constitutes “the void”? Lack of activity? Lack of companionship? Or just any old desire?
I’d say defining your “void” is a pretty good start in the way of understanding it, and perhaps even ‘filling’ it.
I’d say “the void” is the uncomfortableness of existing - a kind of underlying anxiety of sorts.
Ah, I think I follow – the “void” is in what we do not understand. Would you agree, then, that we essentially ‘fill’ the void by either avoiding or attempting to understand it?
Shopping seems like a good example of avoidance. Something to keep occupied and bolster confidence in trivial things [no offense meant to anyone]. Philosophy, on the other hand, seems like a good example of attempting to understand the “void”.