Who you are is unbounded consciousness.
You are aware! You are alive!
Everything you experience is you ā it couldn’t be otherwise.
You are unlimited awareness, not resisting anything, including everything.
You are completely at peace.
You are not:
- Separate or limited
- A person with a story
- Your thoughts
- Your feelings
- Any concepts you might have about yourself
- A victim of the past
You are the awareness in which all of this appears.
As you find your way home,
As you shift from your limited idea of you to your true boundless nature,
- Treat everyone and everything (including yourself) with love and care.
- Lose interest in troublesome thoughts and feelings ā let them be finished.
- Follow happiness.
- Tell the truth.
- Fill your life with beauty in all forms.
Note: All comments and questions are welcome. Ā Beginning next week, I’ll be away on a silent retreat and will reappear in the middle of May.
Love to you,
Glori says
I’m confused. Who am I but my thoughts and feelings?
I like to think. I live for it.
Gail Brenner says
Hi Glori,
Welcome – and thank you for your comment.
You ask the essential question: who am I but my thoughts and feelings? I appreciate that you live to think. And if this way of living brings you happiness and contentment, then there is no problem. You are simply enjoying yourself.
However, if you are suffering in any way in your life, when you investigate, you might see that the source of the problem is attachment to thoughts and feelings. If this is what is noticed, then the search begins: how can I be happy? Who am I if not these thoughts and feelings?
So the whole thing begins with what you want. If all is well, no problem. But if all is not well, what I have found is that enduring peace and happiness come from realizing who I am. Not my thoughts and feelings – they are temporary arisings in awareness. Who I am is aware, alive, and not in resistance to anything. This is where eternal peace lies.
Wishing you well….
Glori says
Thanks for taking the time to reply Gail. I was just really struck with your post. Its seemed so alien to me.
Again, I like thinking and feeling, I just didn’t bother to see beyond that. Thanks for making me notice it.
Gail Brenner says
And thank you, Glori, for being open to a new way of looking at things. It sounds like the post struck you because it was so outside of what you know. Isn’t it great to be challenged? Especially when it comes to peace and happiness.
Lilly says
Namaste, Gail! Wishing you a peaceful & relaxing retreat š
Gail Brenner says
Thank you, Lilly. I’m looking forward to it.
Nessa says
Thank you Gail it is wonderful to be reminded of how freedom can come with letting go of “who we are” or perhaps who we were then, yesterday, before.
While there is now I guess there is possibility of change and happiness. I am interested in the idea of letting go of myself as a person with a story – are you saying in a way to rewrite that story each day?
Have a lovely retreat – thank you for your care.
Nessa
Gail Brenner says
Hi Nessa, and thank you for your question.
I didn’t mean to suggest that you rewrite your story every day. Rather, consider what it would be like to have no story. We tend to make up stories in our minds, then hold onto them tightly. This is limiting and the cause of a great deal of suffering.
I am a proponent of letting go of all stories. And in that is such great freedom. You meet life in its palpable freshness in every moment. And don’t worry that you won’t know how to be. You will respond perfectly to what is in front of you – that is our natural intelligence that is beyond all stories.
Maybe you can reflect on the stories you go by. Play with letting them go – even for a couple of hours. Simply see what you notice. Perhaps you will see: no story=no problem.
Nessa says
Thanks Gail for your response and thoughts
I can’t believe I had not thought of Being this way before, of not having a story. Today I tried it and for that moment (it was in fact very brief) it was incredibly liberating, suddenly there seemed possibilities. For the past year or so I have been thinking about “being bigger than my own story”, and using that as away around my Story – but that seemed to take so much out of me – to just let that story go, and move onto the next thing has real resonance for me.
Thanks again, Nessa
Gail Brenner says
What a wonderful report, Nessa! You don’t even have to think your way into Being. Just be.
You can see that you don’t need a bigger story. No story is total freedom.
Oceans of love to you…
David says
Hi Gail,
Thankyou again for your words, they make me think…which I enjoy….a fresh perspective is always elcome
be good to yourself
David
Gail Brenner says
I love your openness, David! That’s what it takes to be free.
Ahhh…a fresh perspective…
Galen Pearl says
“Follow happiness” reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
Gail Brenner says
I love that, Galen – happiness is the way. It is always here, always possible to find. We don’t have to suffer! What good news!
Clare says
If I may add to “you are not a victim of the past”: I believe that the path from self-perceived “victimhood” travels down the lane of survivorship and toward the destination of victor. It seems to me that anyone reading your blog, could consider herself/himself a victor in many respects, because when you stop the obessive thought patterns, the negative self-talk and all of the other habits that prevent you from becoming yourself, or the best you can be, it is your wisdom that is guiding you finally.
Gail Brenner says
This is a beautiful addition, Clare.
There is a sense of relief, and great peace, when these troublesome habits of thinking and feeling are no longer in control. What guides us then? Wisdom, happiness, intelligence, knowing.
And it sounds like you are one of the victors over these troubles. Your life then becomes a testament to what’s possible for everyone.
Love to you…
Clare says
. . . and love to you as well.
nikki hill says
I truly believe that a pure heart can lead to true happiness. May you find peace in your quest.
Noch Noch says
Hi Gail
I agree, the awareness of what’s ever changing…
Noch Noch
Sandra Pawula says
This is my favorite: “Lose interest in troublesome thoughts and feelings ā let them be finished.” What a terrific way to go!
Gail Brenner says
Hi Sandra,
When we lose interest in the troublesome thoughts and feelings, they don’t trouble us anymore! Obvious, I know, but sometimes the mind can get stuck on something that makes us suffer and we lose perspective. As we lose interest in the troubles, we find ourselves – sanity – once again.
Cathy|Treatment Talk says
Hi Gail,
Such a great reminder to be open of our life experiences. I’ve gotten caught up in my story at different points in my life, but I feel that I have learned to follow happiness as the years have passed. Sometimes it takes living a little time to realize that happiness comes when we enjoy who we are. Thanks for sharing.
Gail Brenner says
Hi Cathy,
Yes, for most of us it is a learning process – learning that continuing to feed the stories only brings us unhappiness. But happiness is right here – in this very moment. All it takes is letting go of thoughts, beliefs, and stories. They are the definition of suffering. And when they go, happiness is revealed, shining everywhere.
Khan Asif says
Hello! Sweet Friend Gail
This is the most beautiful article about self-recognition & improvement I’ve read so far. My words can not manifest true beauty of your thoughts.
With you always in my heart!
Gail Brenner says
So beautiful to hear from you, Khan. Sending love…