Are You A Conscious Being?

Not because you can think, but because you can notice thinking. The mind speaks by default.

Awareness listens by choice. If you can watch a thought without becoming it, you’re awake. If every thought recruits you into action, you’re on autopilot.

Consciousness is not a belief. It’s a test. Put the phone face down. Sit for two minutes. Do you choose where attention goes, or do habits choose for you? The answer arrives as motion.

If you scratch every itch, the body is boss.

If you chase every notification, the world is boss.

If you obey every urge, the past is boss.

Being conscious is reclaiming the boss’s chair.

What you can observe is not you. You can observe your breath, your heartbeat, your feelings, your stories. You can even observe the one who is trying to improve. The witness is upstream of all of it. The witness is simple, quiet, and stubbornly present.

Suffering is the alarm of unconsciousness. Pain happens. Suffering is the loop you build on top. When you are conscious, the loop is optional. You feel the pull of anger but you do not throw the punch. You feel the pull of fear but you do not build a horror movie. The gap between stimulus and response is your freedom.

Grow that gap.

Attention is life’s currency. Spend it deliberately or it will be stolen wholesale. The market for your mind is efficient. Every app, ad, and argument is priced to hijack you. A conscious being is rich because their attention is theirs. They decide what to buy with it.

You don’t become conscious by adding more thoughts. You subtract noise until the signal emerges. Less input, clearer seeing. Less reaction, more choice. Less me, more reality. The paradox: you feel most alive when the idea of “you” is quiet.

The actor performs best when he forgets he’s acting.

Can consciousness be measured? Roughly, by refusals. If you can’t say no to sugar, screens, status, or speed, you’re less conscious than you think. Another measure is recovery time. How quickly do you notice you’ve drifted and come back? Not never drifting, but returning faster, is the practice.

You cannot prove consciousness to others. You can only practice it yourself. The proof is in your day: fewer regrets, cleaner exits, calmer choices, clearer speech.

Peace is the side effect, not the goal.

So, are you a conscious being? Ask yourself when you remember to ask at all. The moment you remember, you already are.

The work is to remember more often.