Your experience doesn’t make you, who you are.
Who you are, is that, who gets to experience this.
You are not your experience. You are the one who experiences it.
And, once you recognize this, you can truly accept your experience. No matter what it is. Accept, let go, and freely express the human experience.
Earlier this week, we spoke about our true essence as awareness. And, I shared my experience. As awareness, I don’t feel a sense of self at all. There’s no I or me. Just awareness. For lack of a better word, I call it awareness. Or, a state of awareness.
Also, thoughts, feelings, and emotions are weightless. There is no good, bad, positive, or negative here. Only a pure experience which awareness can observe. No bias, no judgment or any personal opinion.
No wonder I feel such inner peace and completeness. Not to mention, the intense love to all.
But, then…A new experience comes. The thrill is gone
And, we all know it. Something happens that throws us off. All of a sudden, the thrill is gone. There is not even a trace of completeness. Not to mention, inner peace or love. We find ourselves in the midst of a new storm. Now, you may be aware this is not who you are. And, that this is just an experience. But, easier said than done, right? Now, the hormones, the chemicals are flooding your mind and body, and all these little voices are back. With a vengeance.
The Power of your words is the power to the world
Now, we all know that how we say things is more important than what we actually say. And, I am not talking about being politically correct. Or, these sugarcoat communications. I am talking about the “hidden” meanings behind the words we use, or the structure of our sentences. We just get used to speaking in a certain way, without paying attention to those meanings. But, these “hidden” meanings can penetrate deep. And, without us paying attention, affect our experiences.
But, what about our thoughts, then? We think using words too, right? Turns out, the same is very true here as well. Which brings me to where we started this post.
You are not your experience. You are the one who experiences it.
So, what about that experience? Well, let’s think about an unpleasant experience you’ve recently had. Sure, as awareness, you just experience it in peace and love. No biggie. No discomfort. In fact, it’s just like watching a movie. After all, that who suffers is not really you. But, in life, you actually live that experience, right? And, while we are in the midst of that experience, we feel it.
And, right now, it may feel like hell.
I feel vs. there’s this feeling in me
Here’s an example. Yesterday after a long day, I noticed that “I was impatient”. A friend asked for my help, and I was totally going with my mind response which was “I don’t have time for this.” Then, another thought came, “I don’t have patience for him right now.” And, another one with even a stronger “egoic tone”, “I am better than him.”
To be honest, I was aware of all these thoughts. Still, I identified with my mind. And therefore, I didn’t help my friend. And, it didn’t feel bad, because I didn’t feel like helping him. So, why faking it, right?
Well, later on that day, I started to feel this aggression in me. And, that was my time to wake up. Hello! Because, I do not like how it felt. It was then, when my thoughts instantly changed from:
“I am irritated”
to
“I feel irritation in this body. I also feel aggression in this body.”
Immediately, I sensed compassion to myself. And, intense love. Tears of joy. I am home again.
Then, a realization came. Earlier, when my friend asked for my help. If I would help him, that would make him happy. And I could experience that happiness too. But instead, I decided that I didn’t have patience for him.
See, the fact that I did or didn’t help him wasn’t good or bad. It was all about my experience. There was a feeling of impatience in me. And, I identified with it and that was exactly the experience I got. Instead of experiencing happiness, I experienced impatience which turned into to aggression and irritation.
One choice, a totally different experience. How fascinating!
What experience I want to have RIGHT NOW?
Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of these choices. They just manifest as different paths, or experiences. But, there’s a clear and simple lesson here. One, that we should all remember. And, keep reminding ourselves.
When there’s awareness, there’s an understanding that: I am not the experience, I am the one who experiences it. This is how powerful words can be. Because now, I can fully accept the experience, and let go. I can move on. And, choose which experience I want to have. Which path. And I mean, want to have right now. Not tomorrow or next week.
So, the next time you sense an uncomfortable feeling or a discomfort, ask yourself: what is the experience am I having right now?
Remind yourself you are not that experience. Simply accept that right now, this is the human expression you get to experience. It is not who you are. Take a deep breath. Release, and let go.
Then, ask yourself: what experience I want to have right now? Is it a different one? Then, remind yourself, that you are not that experience either. And, let go.
This is how we can all freely express the human experience. And we all know that we usually tend to “attract” similar experiences later. But, that’s a story for some other time.
Aloha and Love.
