"Awareness Is Me" vs. "I Am Aware"

All there is, is truth.

Everything is part of the whole truth. And every thought, expression or experience contains some truth. But a particular thought, expression, or experience can contain more or less truth than another thought, expression or experience. It is your Heart - your sense of yourself - that measures how true things are. Very simply, a larger truth opens or softens your Heart or your sense of self. And if you experience a smaller truth, then the sense of your self will be smaller or more contracted.

For example, if you think, "I am separate from everyone and everything else", notice how that affects your sense of self. And then compare that felt sense of self to the sense of self when you think, "I am connected to everyone and everything else" or even "I am one with everyone and everything else." Just try out each thought. Which one feels truer? Note: If it is harder to think one thought or the other, then just try it on like you would try on a sweater or even a whole costume. You do not have to "wear" either thought all of the time, but just try them on "for size" to see how true they are.

Last night I was speaking about awareness and I noticed that it felt truer to say, "Awareness is me" than to say, "I am aware." It is not that it is untrue to say, "I am aware" but it simply opened my sense of self more to say "Awareness is me." What a slight difference: to switch the subject and object in a sentence with the verb "to be" in it which implies an equivalence or that one thing "is" the other. And yet, saying "Awareness is me" seemed to emphasize "awareness" over "me" or any separate identity I might have, and that feels truer. My Heart softens and expands more with that statement than with "I am aware." It feels truer to notice how awareness is moving as this body, than to notice how this body is aware.

Don't just take my word for it, test it out for yourself. Take a moment to hold each of the following thoughts in your mind, and notice even any slight or subtle difference in how large, open, expanded or relatively smaller, tighter, or more contracted your sense of yourself becomes as you hold each thought (again you can just try them on for size):

• I am aware.
• Awareness is me.

You can also notice how it affects them to turn the object of the sentence into a verb. Is it truer to think of it as a noun or as a verb?

• I am aware.
• I am "awareing." I am doing this thing called "awareness."
• Awareness is me.
• Awareness is "me-ing." Awareness is doing this thing called "me."

You can also experiment with simply replacing the subject "I" with "awareness" in a wide range of thoughts, and again take a moment to notice which version of the sentence feels truer in your Heart or sense of Being:

• I am sitting here.
• Awareness is sitting here.
• I hear a bird singing.
• Awareness hears a bird singing.
• Or: Awareness is a bird singing.
• Or even: Awareness is singing.
• I am my body. I have a body
• Awareness is my body. Awareness has this body.
• I like ice cream.
• Awareness likes ice cream.

It is possible that some sentences will feel less true when you switch:

• I am tired of feeling sad.
• Awareness is tired of feeling sad.

But it might then work to slightly rework the sentence in other ways to emphasize a different part of the truth:

• Awareness is experiencing resistance to sadness.

Again, there is only truth, and there is no wrong way to speak or think and it might still make sense to say, "I like ice cream" in normal conversation. Fortunately, every sentence or thought contains some truth even if some sentences and thoughts are very small expressions of truth and so will naturally result in a relatively contracted and small sense of self. There is no right size for the sense of self since the sense of self you are experiencing right now is always correctly showing you how true your thoughts or experiences are in this particular moment.

But you can play with the words and the concepts to see how that affects your experience of Being in each moment. If you find a way of expressing experience that seems to capture more of the truth, then what a gift to feel your Heart and sense of Being open in response. And if you find a habitual way of expressing the truth actually limits your experience of the truth, then why not at least try on some different thoughts for size? Maybe you will find a whole new array of thoughts, experiences and even fundamental identities to add to your wardrobe!