If I were to ask “Who are you?” I imagine you’d start with your name.
If I asked you to say more you might describe your roles and responsibilities, whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, liberal or conservative, male, female, vegetarian or omnivore. The list is endless.
Me too. These are the kinds of answers people expect.
Yes, you have name. You are a son, daughter, maybe a mother, father, grandparent. You have an astrology sign. A personality type. A diagnosis. A body. A blood type.
But are any of these descriptions who you really, truly are?
And do the descriptions we live inside of help us thrive in life beyond making small talk?
Let’s get right to it and examine the idea that you are a body.
Spoiler alert! This deeper dive often pokes the ego (all the ideas about who think you are). So if your ego gets riled up and tells you to reach for the unsubscribe you might like to pause and stay curious because this inquiry serves up goodies the ego can never deliver.
OK. So you are a body.
Can you point to the ‘me’ that is your body.
I see you’re pointing to your rib cage. Are you a set of ribs?
Are you your big toe? Stomach? Brain? Which part of your body are you? If you lost a limb would you lose part of yourself?
You get the picture.
So where do we go from here?
At this point in a client conversation, if my client looks bewildered, I may point a little.
Are you a body or are you conscious of a body?
After a short pause the reply is invariably; I’m conscious of a body.
Now, this moment might not seem to be much of a big deal. But if I could trigger your screen to deliver a firework display that’s what I’d do. In the meantime feel free to imagine an ear popping visual display of color and light.
Why the fanfare? Because this juncture, where we see that we are conscious, is the equivalent to standing at a cliff edge.
And if you’re willing to step off the cliff you’ll discover that you have wings that transport you to freedom and infinite possibilities.
Shall we step off?
Yes! You are conscious.
There is this thing (although it’s not really a thing) called Consciousness, some call Awareness, that sees.
Like a lazer beam Consciousness sees through and beyond ideas, labels and thoughts about who we think we are, what we’re capable of and not and what we like and don’t.
Consciousness wakes us up to remind us that we are not a label, role, diagnosis or personality type. Our True Self is Consciousness.
We = Consciousness = Freedom = No limits = Pure life energy = Infinite possibility.
Gosh! When I see you in this light you are dizzy making.
But the thing is, we have to experience our True Self directly otherwise True Self is a dry, lifeless concept.
So how do we make the shift from believing we are who we think we are to the dizzy freedom of Being Conscious?
Do we set about erasing thoughts, changing them, expanding them?
No. It’s simpler than that.
Be suspicious of thoughts.
See your thoughts as thoughts as opposed to believing them to be real and true.
Notice when you’re about to buy into a thought (yours or someone else’s) and let the thought slip by.
In that moment the food of your attention that makes thoughts appear real and important is taken away and your limited thought-based idea of who you are weakens.
In that moment you’ve stepped off the cliff, your wings are unfurlling and Consciousness is lifting you to freedom, happiness, peace, inspiration and love.
After all, there’s no need to be bashful, who you really are IS freedom, love, infinite possibility, love (oh, did I say love already?)
I’m at the cliff edge. Ready?
