Many of us are driven by an inner restlessness and longing. A sense that something is missing in our lives, even when, on the outside, things appear stable or even enviable. It’s a quiet ache that settles into the pauses of our days. We can be grateful for so much and still feel like something essential is just out of reach.

This isn’t a flaw or a sign of ingratitude. It’s a sign of disconnection. A signal from within that we have drifted away from something vital in ourselves.

I remember standing on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, literally on top of the world, yet feeling lower and emptier than I ever had. It made no sense. I had accomplished something extraordinary, but inside I felt a hollow emptiness I could no longer ignore.

That moment became a turning point, although I didn’t know it then. The emptiness I felt wasn’t failure. It was an invitation. What I now understand is that this longing is what I call Soul Hunger — one of the hidden stressors that quietly drains our vitality when we lose touch with our deeper selves. It is the part of us that knows there is more to our lives than the roles we play or the expectations we carry.

Soul hunger is not a problem to fix. It is your soul trying to get your attention. A quiet summons to come home to yourself and a life that feels good to your soul.

The Inner Tug of War

This is why the ache feels confusing. Your mind tells you to be grateful. But your deeper self whispers that something is out of alignment. Soul hunger creates this tension because part of you is ready to grow, while another part wants to stay safe and familiar.

And if feeling lost and confused isn’t enough, we also feel lonely because most people don’t understand what we’re experiencing. We get the message: “You have so much and are so fortunate, what could possibly be missing in your life?”

At the heart of this seeking is the need to know who we are and why we are here. What is this journey we call life all about?

What I eventually discovered through my own journey is this: that inner void wasn’t a sign that something was wrong with me. It was evidence that the next version of myself was ready to emerge. Beneath the roles I’d been playing and the life I’d been living, there was a deeper truth waiting to be uncovered.

What This Feeling Is Trying to Tell You

Through my own transformation and years of walking alongside others on similar journeys, I began to see a pattern. This aching sense that something is missing usually points to one of three root causes:

1. We Have Lost Touch With Our True Selves

In this scenario, we have been so busy focusing on other people or fulfilling the many roles in our lives that we lose touch with our innermost selves. We may notice that we know more about what brings other people happiness and joy than what brings us deeper fulfillment.

We lose sight of our own values, gifts, and what makes our hearts sing. Our authentic self becomes buried beneath layers of beliefs about who we should be. We’re busy being “good” people, doing what we should do, and in the process, we lose touch with who we actually are and who we’re meant to become.

Our personality is content to keep things the same, in our comfort zone. Our soul, however, has another agenda, and it asks that we heal and grow. This requires that we develop a healthy relationship with ourselves and honor the inner urge to live more fully in alignment with our soul’s blueprint.

2. We Are Ready for Deeper, More Meaningful Relationships

As we begin to awaken, we are less satisfied with living in the shallow end of life. Our souls long for deep and fulfilling relationships where we can share our most intimate thoughts and feelings with those closest to us.

We want and need deeper connections with people—a desire to share and discover our authentic selves with others in safe and nourishing ways. Just as we are meant to grow and evolve, our relationships are also meant to grow and evolve. When this doesn’t happen, we feel stuck, like we’re living as roommates rather than soul companions.

While earlier in our lives we may be satisfied with relationships that enable us to share tasks and manage roles, there comes a point when our souls need something deeper. What meets our needs in one chapter of our life doesn’t meet our needs in the next.

3. We Are Hungry for Deeper Meaning and Purpose

This gnawing sense that something is missing is often a sign that we have a spiritual yearning we may not be aware of. It’s an invitation from our soul to bring our life into alignment with our core essence.

The universe, divine intelligence, God, higher power—whatever you call “it”—is setting off an alarm that may be saying: “You are a spiritual being having a human experience.” When we don’t know how to live as spiritual beings, it’s not surprising that something feels missing.

Our society values material success, achievement, status, and identification with our roles. When we achieve these things yet still feel empty, we become confused about what brings deeper meaning and purpose. We find ourselves asking: Who am I beyond all the roles that define me? Is this all there is?

This sense that something is missing isn’t about failure. It is often a sign that one of the hidden stressors is active, most commonly soul hunger stress — the inner depletion that arises when your soul wants growth, meaning, or authenticity.

The Mystery Invitation

This sense that something is missing in life is ultimately an invitation to embark on an inner journey, to understand ourselves and get in the “flow” of something much larger than our small, conditioned selves.

It’s an opportunity to shift from doing what was expected of us in the first half of our lives to responding to what needs to emerge through us for the next part of our journey. This shift is challenging for many of us because it requires letting go of the familiar to make space for what has yet to reveal itself.

When I felt that emptiness standing on that mountain summit, I didn’t yet understand that my soul was stirring. That what felt like loss was actually an invitation to remember who I’d always been beneath the conditioning and expectations I’d accumulated over five decades of living.

What feels missing often turns out to be a deeper connection with yourself. The journey from something is missing to coming home to yourself is a journey of discovering who you are beneath the personality, conditioning, and expectations you carry. It is a shift from living on the surface of your life to living from your soul.

You Don’t Need to Fix Yourself

If something in these words speaks to what you can’t quite put into language, I want you to know: you’re not broken. You’re being called to awaken. You’re part of a quiet revolution of people who feel something is missing, not because they need to be fixed, but because they’re ready to find themselves and live more authentically.

If this longing resonates with you, you may find it helpful to explore the seven hidden stressors I write about. They provide language and clarity for the deeper experiences we do not always know how to name.

When we create space, turn inward, and get curious about what’s missing in our lives, we open the door to evolving into a more authentic, peaceful, and loving version of ourselves. The something that is missing isn’t out there waiting to be found. It’s in there, waiting to be discovered.

What resonates most deeply for you in this exploration? We’d love to hear your reflections in the comments below.