What waking up taught me about stillness, ego, and the next right step

What do you do when your inner world begins to change — but the outer world stays reactive, fast, and fear-driven? — This piece offers a grounded perspective on presence, ego, and how aligned action can arise.

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There’s one thing I’ve been struggling with ever since I began waking up — really waking up.

Waking up to the nature of the mind.
Waking up to the delusions it creates.
Waking up to the nonstop thoughts that float through and hook us.

We follow them, identify with them, and assume that’s who we are.

But that’s not who we are.

That’s the small mind. The one that latches onto phenomena — thoughts, feelings, fears — and builds an identity from them. The one that perpetuates stories, anxieties, assumptions. It reacts, it plans, it protects. And it never stops talking.

“You are not your thoughts; you are aware of your thoughts. You are not your emotions; you feel emotions. You are not your body; you look at it in the mirror and experience this world through its eyes and ears. You are the conscious being who is aware that you are aware of all these inner and outer things.”

― Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself