The Presence of Absence

There are some words that carry very powerful meanings in their original language, but have no direct translation into other languages.

“Saudada” is one of those words.

According to Dictionary.com, Saudada (pronounced sou da da) is a noun, a word in the Portuguese language, with a meaning of “a deep emotional state or melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent.”

Another meaning that has been associated with Saudada is the “presence of absence.”

The “presence of absence” typically represents an emotional state associated with sadness or grief.  

The “presence of absence” includes a longing for something or someone that no longer physically exists in your life. 

For example, you may have experienced a death of a loved one, a breakup of relationship, the loss of a job, the loss of a living situation, the loss or a change in a friendship, etc.

Since absence has a presence in your life, it also has an energetic footprint, a vibrational offering that is sent out to the Universe.

The “presence of absence” is a lower vibrational state that is “restrictive” and based on a vibration of “lack.”

The presence of absence, Saudada, is something you will likely experience many times during your lifetime.

Get additional insights on the Presence of Absence from the Out There on the Edge of Everything® Podcast.

How can you effectively deal with the presence of absence, when it occurs in your own life?

1. Acknowledge the “presence of absence” in your life. The “presence of absence” is a non-linear, spiraling, emotional process that creates strong intense and raw negative emotions in you.  Acknowledging you are experiencing such strong and intense negative emotions based on the presence of absence will lessen their impact in your life and help you stop the spiraling or looping effect of such negative emotions. When you acknowledge the presence of absence in your life, you begin to deactivate it and neutralize its effects on you.  When you acknowledge the presence of absence “energy” in your life, you reduce its power over you and empower yourself.
2. Accept the “presence of absence” in your life. The person or thing you desired, cherished or loved is gone from your life.  That person or thing may never return to your life.  This is absolutely true when you experience a death of a loved one.  You need to accept the loss and move on. Accepting the loss gives you freedom from it.  Accepting the loss creates space for something new to enter to your life.  Accepting the loss of that person or thing allows you to shift yourself into higher vibrational emotions, such as contentment, peace, freedom, happiness, joy, etc.  Accepting the loss of that person or thing also allows you to change into a higher vibrational state of “openness” based on a vibration “abundance.”
3. Release the need for energy of the “presence of absence” in your life.  Releasing the need for the energy associated with the presence of absence actually includes releasing the energy of control and embracing the energy of surrender.  The energy of control is being attached to a specific, person, thing, event or outcome.  Embracing the energy of surrender is not giving up or not remembering that person or thing you had or desired in your life. It is instead acknowledging and accepting what has happened and having faith and trust that everything is ok right now in your life and will be ok moving forward. Releasing the need for the energy associated with the presence of absence frees you from the negative, lower vibrational energy associated with a loss and that person or thing being absent from your life.  It helps brings closure to the situation. If you do not release the need for the presence of absence in your life, you leave it unresolved.  Leaving the emotions associated with the presence of absence unresolved may cause you to experience physical or mental illness or emotional problems in your life moving forward.  Such unresolved emotions always remind me of the phrase, “serenity now, insanity later.” This phrase is from the TV show Seinfeld (Season 9, Episode 159, 1997-1998) in which George Costanza’s nemesis, Lloyd Braun spent time in a mental institution because he suppressed his own emotions with respect to the absence of success in his life and left them unresolved for years.  One instance in which something on a television show illustrates what actually happens in real life.

Effectively dealing with the presence of absence allows you to make positive impact in your own life and give you the freedom to co-create the life you truly desire.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

Copyright © 2021, by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved.

If you are facing the presence of absence in your own life, I can help you.

I am a certified solution-focused life coach and experienced business coach.