We’re all living our lives as islands - in our own heads. Separate from one another. Isolated and essentially alone.

The world is comprised of billions of islands coinhabiting the ocean which is our shared reality, but we have vastly different experiences depending on the state of our island.

My island might be sparsely populated with coconut trees and course grains of sand, yours may have a lush jungle with a majestic waterfall. Or maybe your island is mostly deserted and arid, no greenery to be seen at all.

While our islands may appear visibly different, our islands are essentially the same. They have the exact same foundation – layers upon layers of sand.

So much sand that where we were once in the ocean itself, we now inhabit a small island that serves to separate us from where we once came.

The island has become home.

We spend all of our time on our island, keeping ourselves busy, tending to this or to that.

We feed ourselves with whatever the island provides, and whatever it provides, we use to replant more of the same - a continuous loop of eating the same foods, receiving the same nourishment, experiencing the same things, day in and day out.

We often pass other islands floating in the ocean and maybe we say hello.

Maybe we befriend other islands and in doing so, we may share resources and information that we take back to our own islands, bringing about change to the way our island functions.

This could be new seeds we plant to harvest new types of food or plants, or perhaps a new activity we can use to pass time on our island.

Maybe we even fall in love with another island.

We might try to combine our islands, to bring our two worlds together. And while it may appear successful or perhaps a crossing may have formed, the reality will always be that I’m on my island and you’re on yours. 

For we never really get to escape our island.

It’s constant. We're always there and it's always here.

No matter how close our islands may be to one another, I am still living life in my head and you in yours.

 For we are at the center of our own universe.

From where we stand, on our own individual islands, life will always be about us and for us. No one else.

As long as we stay on our islands, we will always feel separate. Separate from one another and from the ocean that surrounds us.

But what if we stopped clinging to the safety of our island and by doing so, allowed the sea level to slowly rise and the ocean to embrace us?

What if we realised that the island was temporary, somewhere we got stuck, and that the ocean is where we truly belong?

What if we discovered that instead of belonging in the ocean, we were the ocean?


Questions to reflect on

Imagine that your current inner state is an island. How would you describe it? Would it be lush and beautiful? Or would it be sparse and dull? Now think about why you've described it that way.
Can you ever truly experience anyone's perception of reality but your own?
Is the island really who you are? Who is the one who is aware of the island?
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