You say me all the time. This is how I am. This is what I want.
This is what I've been through. But stop for just a second. Who is this eye you keep referring to?
Is it your name? Because if you really look, really get still, you'll start to notice something strange. That you you've been talking about this whole time isn't real.
Not in the way you think. You weren't born with a personality. You weren't born with your opinions, your style, your fears, your voice.
Those came later, layer by layer, shaped by your parents, your environment, your experiences, your pain. You think you are a fixed person, but you're not. You're a story that's been told so many times, you started believing it was the truth.
Most of that story, you didn't even write it. It was downloaded into you through survival, culture, social rules, childhood wounds, the way you react, the kind of people you're drawn to, the things that trigger you, the goals you chase, they're all just programs running under the name me. But here's the thing.
When you start to observe this, really see it for what it is, something shifts. You begin to realize there's something beneath the story, something that watches, something that never changes no matter how many times you do. And that that quiet, formless presence behind the story is the real you.
Not your name, not your opinions, not even your trauma, but the one who sees it all without needing to be any of it. Let's flip the mirror for a second. Why are we so obsessed with finding ourselves?
Why do we get hurt when someone disagrees with us? Why do we feel personally attacked when things don't go our way? Because we're trying to protect a version of me that we think is real, but it's actually just a fragile identity we've been carrying around like armor.
Think about it. We say, "This is just how I am. " But where did that belief come from?
Someone once told you that you're sensitive, so now you say, "I'm sensitive. " Someone once ignored you and now you think I'm not lovable. Someone complimented you for being smart, so now you chase achievements.
Not because you love them, but because you're terrified of being seen as anything else. You're not building a life. You're maintaining a mask.
And the ego will do anything to keep that mask in place. It'll argue, blame, compare, even suffer just to keep feeling real. But here's the thing.
Every time you protect the identity, you move further away from your actual freedom. The identity is always afraid. Afraid of being wrong, of being embarrassed, of being unseen, unneeded, unloved.
But the awareness behind the identity, it needs nothing because it already is. It doesn't need to be respected. It doesn't need to be right.
It doesn't even need a name. It just watches and exists in peace. You don't have to kill the ego.
You don't have to destroy your personality. You just have to stop mistaking it for who you are. You can use the name, play the role, but always remember you are not the mask.
You are the one underneath it. The one that remains even when the story changes. Because when people say, "This is who I am.
" What they're usually pointing to is a timeline. their past, their memories, their experiences, a highlight reel of pain and pleasure stitched together to form a name. But here's the uncomfortable truth.
Your memories are not reliable. Your thoughts are not stable. Your identity is not solid.
It's all just impressions stored in your mind, shifting, fading, changing. Think about it. You look in the mirror and say, "This is me.
" But your body is not the same as it was last year. Your thoughts are not the same. Your beliefs change.
Your habits change. Even your voice changes over time. So what exactly is you?
Something is always changing. And yet something is always watching that change. That's the real mystery.
The silent observer behind all of it. You're not the story of your childhood. or not your preferences, your gender, your culture, your memories.
You're the awareness behind all those things. And that awareness, it has no name. It's not personal.
It doesn't live in the past or the future. It just is. Now, here's the trap most people fall into.
They think if they lose their identity, they'll lose themselves. That surrendering the story means disappearing. But it's the opposite.
When you drop the constant need to maintain a personality, you make space to actually be here, to respond in real time, to feel life without always checking if it fits who I'm supposed to be. The illusion of you is built from mental snapshots. But the real you, it's not made of thought.
It's the space where thought happens. It's the silence between words, the awareness before the next sentence forms in your head. When you stop trying to be someone, something happens.
Not a loud realization, not a spiritual fireworks show. Just stillness, a moment where your thoughts slow down enough for you to feel that they were never you in the first place. You'll notice that the voice in your head, the one narrating everything, is just a sound.
It even argues with itself, but you're the one hearing it. And that means you can't be the voice. You're what's underneath the voice behind the noise before the story begins.
And the craziest part, you've always known this deep down. That's why silence sometimes feels so familiar. Why peace feels like home.
Because it is. You're not discovering something new. You're just remembering what's always been there.
The you that's not a person, but a presence. Not a role, but a witness, not a thought, but the space that holds them all. Now that you've made it this far, you're not here for information.
You're here because something in you is ready to experience this truth that the you think you are is just a mask. So, here's your challenge. For the next 24 hours, let go of being you.
Not physically, not socially, but internally. Whenever you catch yourself saying, "I am this way. I can't handle.
I'm not good enough. " Pause and ask yourself, "Who is the eye behind that sentence? Don't answer with words.
Just observe and notice the silence that follows. " That's you. And here's the twist.
Spend one full day being nobody. You'll still go to work, still speak, still move. But inside, remind yourself, I don't need to be anyone today.
I'm just awareness. I'm just here. Watch how your reactions change.
Watch how your mind quiets. Watch how peaceful it feels to stop pretending. If you're in for this challenge, comment, "I am not who I thought I was," below.
Let's see how many of us are truly ready to drop the mask. And if something shifts for you, even in the smallest way, come back and share it. Your comment might wake someone else up, too.
