Our bodies are always speaking.
A tightness in the chest.
A sense of ease.
A heaviness we can’t quite explain.
A quiet exhaustion that seems to be asking us to pay attention.
Sometimes the body seems to respond before the thinking mind has found the words. We feel something before we understand it. Something shifts inside us before we can explain why.
And yet, so often, we overlook these signals.
We try to think our way through something that is already being felt.
But there is another layer to this.
If you become quiet enough to notice the tightness in your chest, something interesting has already happened:
You noticed it.
And that raises a fascinating question.
If the body is speaking…who is listening?
We casually say:
My body is tired.
My mind won’t stop thinking.
I’m noticing my emotions.
But listen carefully to the language.
My body.
My thoughts.
My emotions.
Who is the “my”?
Michael A. Singer explores this question extensively in The Untethered Soul. He invites us to notice a simple distinction: there are the thoughts passing through the mind, the emotions moving through the heart, and the experiences unfolding around us.
And then there is the awareness that notices them.
Singer refers to this as the witness consciousness, the consciousness experiencing what is happening within us and around us.
Think about that for a moment.
You can notice a thought.
You can notice fear.
You can notice excitement.
You can notice your body aging.
You can even notice the voice in your mind asking:
What does all of this mean?
Something is aware of all of it.
So perhaps the question “Who am I?” takes us somewhere different when we stop answering it with our résumé.
I am a financial planner.
I am a parent.
I am a spouse.
I am successful.
I am struggling.
I am Armenian.
I am American.
These things may all describe parts of our lives.
But are they the entirety of who we are?
Roles change.
Bodies change.
Circumstances change.
Thoughts come and go.
Emotions rise and fall.
Even the stories we tell about ourselves evolve.
Yet somehow, through all those changes, there remains this remarkable capacity to notice.
To witness.
To be aware.
Maybe that doesn’t give us the final answer to “Who am I?”
But perhaps it gives us a clue about where to look.
Not only at everything happening to us…
but also toward the quiet awareness experiencing it.
A Moment to Reflect
For just a few seconds, notice whatever thought is passing through your mind right now.
Don’t change it.
Don’t judge it.
Simply notice it.
Then ask:
If I can observe this thought, who is doing the observing?
And if I can observe my body, my emotions, my roles, and even the story I tell about myself…who is the one experiencing all of it?
Michael Singer offers one answer: the witness, the consciousness that is aware.
You don’t have to accept that answer.
Perhaps the more interesting invitation is to investigate it for yourself.
Because “Who am I?” may not be a question we solve with another thought.
It may be a question we learn to experience.
Until the next moment,
In harmony,
Ohan
