That’s why it’s a practice, not an instant transformation.

If you meditate for 20 minutes a day for 2 or 3 months, most likely you will only feel its calming, expansive effects during or right after meditation.

As you continue for 12 months, 2 years, 5 years, maybe sometimes naturally falling into longer periods of silence, your ‘identity’ shifts from thinking you are the noise in your mind - all it’s plans, judgments, desires, moods, etc. - to…”What’s that watching all that noise, but isn’t another thought itself? Just the Witness? Just Awareness?”

When you begin to see you are that Awareness, that uninvolved observer is Who You Really Are, and notice that you can remain as the dispassionate observer even throughout the rest of the day as thoughts flood back in and you are actively engaged in work, play, social interaction, then your life is permanently transformed.