The Unobserved Truth of Who You Are…
…When No One’s Watching
There is a moment, quiet, unnoticed, where truth reveals itself. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t ask permission. It just is. It shows up in that fleeting, solitary moment when the only witness is you. It is that strange duality that lives right at the very back of your mind; ever present yet not often heard.
Call it the inner voice. The duology of consciousness. The thinker and the observer. The part of you that acts, and the part that observes. It’s in this tension that the unfiltered, unmarketed truth of who you truly are can bubble to the surface.
This is the self beyond the expectations or conditioning of others, the you behind the shop window.
Two Voices, Living In Just One Mind (that alternate universe Phil Collins hit)
There is a strange duality in human thought:
The one who feels and the one who knows.
One is reactive: it panics, flares, spirals, and doubts.
The other is grounded: a still presence beneath the chaos.
The reactive mind says, “You failed again.”
The observing mind replies: “No, you’re just learning.”
One screams.
The other speaks.
If you pause long enough to listen — really listen, to meditate (in all its forms, not necessarily cross-legged making ommm noises), you’ll begin to hear the difference. And often, it’s the quiet voice that tells the truth.
The Ever-Present Witness
There is a part of you that is always there. Always watching. Not with judgment, but with wisdom. It is your inner compass, your quiet guide through life.
This is the part that ancient texts pointed to, the guardian angel, the conscience, or the Jiminy Cricket (for the purpose of this exercise, Pinocchio is an ancient text). The voice that knows who you are beneath the noise and expectations. It is not just a passive observer. It is your wisest self. Your best friend. Your internal truth-teller. It has your best interests at heart. Always. Only in our quietest moments, or times of great crisis, does it rise to the surface. Not because it’s absent the rest of the time, but because we’re too distracted to hear it.
Your Mission… If You Choose To Accept It
Your real task in this life is to align with it. To merge the reactive self and the witness. To become whole. There is no more important mission than this: Know yourself. Because from that place of self-knowing, you make clearer choices and aligned decisions. You begin to live by design, not default. It is the light that shows you the path you must walk.
Self-Awareness Isn’t Performance
In a world obsessed with productivity, image, and external validation, we’ve started treating self-awareness like another metric to optimise — another thing to do. But fundamental awareness isn’t curated. It doesn’t exist to be shared, retweeted, or converted into content. It exists in stillness. In the raw. In the quiet. It’s not the Instagram quote; it’s the thought you had before you hit post. It’s not what you say to others. It’s what you admit to yourself at 2 AM.
You Always Know
There is a part of you that always knows the truth. It isn’t perfect. It isn’t loud. But it knows. It knows when you’ve betrayed your values. It knows when you’re hiding. It knows when you’re about to sabotage something good. It also knows when you’re onto something real. When you’re aligned, the words in your mouth match the compass in your soul. This part of you is always watching. Not to judge. But to witness. It is The Witness.
Your Real Work
The real work of self-discovery is not found in external metrics. It’s not in what others say about you. It’s not even about how often you get it right.
It’s in your willingness to sit in that unobserved space and look honestly. It’s in your courage to acknowledge what you see without rushing to fix, brand, or deny it. Because the authentic transformation starts when you stop performing and start listening. To the quieter voice. To the more authentic voice. To The Witness
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Phil was spot-on.