soul searching? is it the answer to an emptiness inside?

Well, I think you can look for your soul and be practical at the same time.

All of us are looking for something in life. We are all looking for something permanent. Something so permanent that would make us feel happy all the time. But we are not aware that we are looking for this permanency, and it is a very silent call from inside. It is our conscience which keeps calling, but we tend to look away from it, thinking that it's our sense we have to satisfy and keep ourselves busy by identifying ourselves with something like a job, or by getting attached to another human being and etc..etc. What your friend has done is, she has now realised that probably, this is not what she's been looking for in life, and she wants to know what is it she wants exactly and she is willing to look for it. Most of us don't do the soul searching by looking within ourselves and just because the society demands us to live in a particular manner, we comply and force ourselves to live that way even if we don't want to. I've been doing soul searching right from my earliest days of school and I haven't come to a conclusion yet. I don't go for a job because I don't like to. I love doing theater even if it doesn't pay, but still I do it. And when I need space to look within myself, I sure do take time away from the world and just spend a lot of time alone. Most of us don't do this because of the fear of losing something. The other term for it is attachment. The fear of losing stops us from making an effort to know ourselves and this stops our growth...the inner growth. The emptiness does come at different intervals for me too. And at that time, all I do is just meditate and try to find the reason of that emptiness. The deeper I go, the deeper it gets and you just don't seem to arrive at a solution, but all you get to know is, you have no end to your consciousness. :) Soul searching is indeed a very nice experience.