If our awareness is free from all the things it is aware of, doesn't that mean it is nothing? So, if we are merely the awareness, then we are nothing, we don't exist.

But in reality, in terms of our interaction with the world, our thoughts and feelings are very real, and dictate how we experience the world and respond to it. It's possible that our thoughts and feelings are more real than our awareness. After all, we are only ever aware of a small amount of things at a time, and sometimes we're not even aware of anything, yet still alive, with subconscious mental processes taking place. It's possible for things to affect us and for us to respond to things without being fully aware of them. For example, when driving a car without consciously thinking about most of what we are doing. Or when things happen to us and it affects us on a subconscious level without us realising it. Those things are having real affects on us even if we're not aware of them.

It's kind fo spiritual mumbo-jumbo to say we are only awareness. Nope. We are much more than we are aware of.