Who Are You?

A colleague of mine suggested a book for me to read and what I love is that truth is truth no matter what words or language is used. Different things resonate for different people, yet the message still seems to be the same.

Who are you? Are you a combination of your past experiences, your thinking and feelings, your personality? What if you are something other than all that? 

I always say to my clients, “You are not your thinking,” but what does this insight do for them?

It creates the experience of there being space between you, THE REAL YOU, and the content of thought that flows through your mind. YOU are the being that is aware of the content. When you can see thinking as something other than you, separate from YOU, it doesn’t have the same pull, the same urgency, the same grip.

It’s like a subject-object relationship. YOU are the subject and your thinking is the object. (Truth be told, I could substitute the words emotions, feelings, circumstances, pain, anxiety for “thinking” in this analogy.)

It is possible to be more of an observer of your thoughts and feelings. When you observe your thoughts and feelings rather than identify with them, you actually open up the channel of free will. You get to experience the real YOU showing up, the healthy, resilient YOU, unlimited by your self-concepts.

This freedom actually allows you to be OK no matter what thoughts or feelings you are experiencing. It’s the difference between standing on safe ground watching someone drowning in quick sand and being the one drowning in quick sand.

Watching may arouse a fearful experience, but you are on safe ground, solid footing, not afraid of being swallowed by the abyss. When you innocently, yet, mistakenly believe that you are the one drowning, it seems like there is no way out and you flail around as if the quick sand is real rather than a temporary, fleeting experience. The quick sand loses its grip when you see it for what it is. 

You are not drowning in the quick sand (though it may feel that way). YOU are the one watching, always safe, always OK no matter what.