Why Your Ego Loves To Constantly Challenge You
The ego most of the time gets a really bad rap. But the ego is simply a way for us to understand and be present in our daily lives, trying to understand and attend to the world around us. In most spiritual circles, the ego is basically presented as an anti-thesis to viewing the world through the Universe’s version of who we are. The reason for this is that the ego, to some extent, is the principle in our psyches that separates us from one another, while spirit is the principle that shows us that no such separation exists.
In some cases, the ego is depicted as an almost demonic figure that keeps us from realizing our true spiritual nature. But at its most basic, the ego is simply a tool that helps us organize the various aspects of our personality so that we can function in the physical world. The easiest way to determine if your ego is in control od what you are trying to accomplish is to ask one of these two questions:
* What I just did/said makes me feel superior to others?
* What I just did/said makes me feel inferior to others?
If you answered yes to either of the above questions, then it’s likely your ego is in the driving seat. This is because the ego is somewhat of a contradiction. The ego is our physical sense of self. It balances what is real in the physical world to what is the reality in the spiritual world of self that is never ending and continues on long after the physical self has left this plane. I believe the ego is what keeps us grounded in a world that we truly don’t understand and our spiritual self constantly is trying to balance the two. Like walking a balance beam of what is real and what are we making up. The ego helps us keeps things into perspective in relationships, self-esteem, our drive to better ourselves and at the same time loves to torture us to never be truly happy with who we are in the moment.
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After getting a lot of definitions of what the ego is and what it is actually used for in this existence, some fairly good psychologists came up with some great guidelines on how to make your ego work for you instead of it continually trying to outsmart you to make you feel bad about yourself by one-upping someone else. Below are a few exercises to try out everyday that will shut the arrogant ego up and help you use your ego to your advantage. They will make you feel great and also the person you are directing the energy to.
- Go out of your way to give someone a great compliment. Someone that you don’t usually communicate often with and you know could use a good word for that day.
- Tell your partner that he/she looks particularly good. Whatever it may be, new shirt, haircut, beard shaved off or new cologne.
- Make eye contact with a total stranger and say hello. Give a few extra smiles to someone who looks like they could use one. Don’t care if you don’t get one back, that’s POWER!
- Ask your mom or dad a lot of questions about themselves. What was school like, who was their first date, how did they like school? You know your parents as adults, find out what they were like as kids.
- Set your alarm 15 minutes ahead and just take those moments visualizing how you would like to see the day unfold for you in a positive way. NO thinking of troubles you have to deal with that day!
- Shut your phone off for an hour. Pick up a book or magazine a read it as though you have nothing else in the world on your mind but what you are reading.
- Do something by yourself that you would normally do with a friend; a movie, a lunch, shopping or anything that only you are totally engrossed in without conversation.
- Put some money in your savings account or coin jar, even if it is an embarrassing small amount. You did it for you!
- Push yourself 5 minutes longer in your exercise routine that you usually do. It’s for just for you and not to prove anything to your ego that you could do it!
- Back down on a discussion where you can make a choice of being happy or being right! It will make you feel amazing that you knew you are capable of having that kind of power!
(READ: Should You Go Back to an Ex?)
Susan Z’s Verdict
The ego is only the bad guy when it is used at the expense of yourself or someone else. In this physical reality, the ego can help us gauge our accomplishments with a good feeling if we counter balance it with the spiritual energy of why we felt good about what we just did or said.
Susan Z Rich is an emotional addiction counselor, spiritual intuitive and holistic therapist. She counsels others to see life in a more positive way and teaches personal accountability for life choices. She is also the author of several children’s books and Soul Windows…Secrets From The Divine.
Yes I agree with much of this. The Soul creates the ego for lessons to learn. We should not distrespect it, rather understand it. The Soul also is known as the Ego. Spiritually we are born with too much lower plane personality ego or two little. Balance is needed, as in the true meaning of the concept of Karma. Making a friend of the ego rather than killing it is much more helpful to the individual and group.