The most impactful thing I’ve ever learnt with regards to my mental health is realising that thinking is no more than a tiny aspect of who I am.

So if I am not my thoughts and emotions, who am I? Well… I am the awareness that sees those thoughts and feels those emotions when they arise - the same awareness that sees and feels all of life around me. But only if I don’t identify with them. That is to say, I mistake my thoughts and emotions for who I am.

Think about it logically. When you were born, did you have the same thoughts that you have now? Probably not. But you are the same person right? Well… technically… yes and no. Your consciousness has remained constant but everything on the level of form will have changed. Even down to the cells in your body. They will have renewed themselves countless times since the day you were born.

Many scientists spend their lives trying to look deeper into space only to discover that the universe continues to get bigger and more complex whilst others spend their lives looking deeper inside matter only to discover that particles continue to get smaller and more intricate. And yet both of these are viewed through a lens, missing the fact that on the deepest level they are in fact infinite in the first place - if only they were to look back at themselves.

However, the difference is recognising that on the deepest level we are not just conscious beings, we ARE in fact consciousness itself. The same consciousness that pervades all life. And hence, we don’t ‘have’ a life. Life is not something you can have or own like something created in form. Ultimately, we are life. The one life. 

Learning to recognise deeply that you are the same consciousness, life force, life energy, source, ‘god’ (whatever you want to call it) that is in all living things is how true connections are made. It’s the basis for true change, for empathy and ultimately, love. They are one and the same. It’s only our fragmented thinking and the illusory sense of self that can get in the way.