The ego’s intent is multi-faceted. It has many needs although its main intent today is to serve and protect itself. In that vein, we’ll start with the most common understanding of what ego is and the role it plays in your life.
Ego’s Role
Ego contributes significantly to how you live your life, the choices you make, and those defining attributes that further identify, define, and allow you to be seen as the unique individual you are.
Each is made up of a vast range of attributes such as likes/dislikes, desires, and attainments. These include clothing selections, social status (sought), friends, taste in restaurants, or food preferences for each can all be influenced by ego. Do you feel more understood when you wear a certain designer label or when you embellish your body with a specific tattoo? You see, each are merely reflections of you. They also display how you wish to be seen by yourself and by others.
Gone are the days of the saber-toothed feline and the need to be protected from such predators. Yet, much of the ego’s existence is still dependent on fight or flight responses and if the body does not have its quirks, then in some regards the ego becomes obsolete. So there is a push/pull measure here in that if a need doesn’t exist in this context, one will be created.
What do we mean by this? Have you ever thought of ego as the one who defines how you see a body ailment? For example, when you engage with someone who has a certain physical condition, how do they respond when you ask how they are doing? Do you expect to hear a polite response or a summation of their aches and pains? When the response given lists a diatribe of issues, do you see this too as being ego? And when the list is given repetitively, never changing, how might this ego be influencing the one it purportedly serves? And what else might be going on here?
Do You Expect Change?
You see when a litany of issues are routinely given with points never varying from the central theme, it is a further definition of self and does facilitate anchoring an ailment. When the issue is continually reinforced or when it is identified with self in this manner, how can it be effectively eliminated or improved upon?
When restating the symptoms or in the constant identification with each point, the one who wants these things removed from their life is continually anchoring the ailments to them instead. Do you see this? It is in the retelling of the story that these things become reinforced. Do you see that when there is a rote response given in great detail containing all of the undesired aspects having befallen that one, they are reaffirming the status quo of their situation and aligning it to self? They are securing or tethering these things again and again to their world.
In other words, by the repetition of their words, they are affirming that change is not expected, planned nor anticipated within their life’s script. So how does ego fit here? You see, ego uses this storyline to fortify its existence. Now, instead of clothes or other fun things to self-define, definition occurs through ailments and other maladies.
Do You Validate Ego
So know the demanding voice, heard in a sometimes quite bold or boisterous manner, seeks validation of its significance. Ego builds its victimhood and relevance equally, it does not discriminate. And so, know that a victim mentality becomes the identity of this individual. And these components are personally maintained while identifying with the components found in a uniquely-held, victim status.
How Do You Define Self
The question is then, who are they without their disease or ailment? When they cannot readily provide something with hope and promise, but only lip service, you know the ego has taken hold of the circumstance. It works to secure its foothold in existence when an individual finds comfort in a familiar situation and has (in these moments) stopped sleuthing out new answers or remedies to allow changes to be introduced into their current script. When the search (for cures) resumes, there is then a means to introduce change.
You Are the Gatekeeper of Your Thoughts
Stay aware of what is playing within the mental bantering of the mind. Does what you hear elevate or lower your mood? If they are lowering thoughts, redirect them to better ones. Thoughts that make you feel better. You are the gatekeeper of what flows in and out of your mind. Know you can take the reins of control back if you stay aware of what is running there. Engage in present-moment awareness and live your life from the vantage of being present in each moment of the day.
The ego is not bad, but it seeks to bolster its reason to exist. Thus, it will develop a storyline as it desires validation by growing its relevance. From the example given, the choice is twofold. Either to maintain an association with a victim mentality or to recognize that all is possible and limitations can be overcome by changing your perspectives through the thoughts you hold. Good examples in life exist. You can see them all around you. Adversity does exist too, but in adversity, there also exists an opportunity. It is all a matter of perception. Choices are made to achieve and overcome any perceived limitations. To overcome and be a victor rather than a victim is what some seek and can be a part of anyone’s storyline. It happens when you recognize that this isn’t what you want and then decide what it is you do want.
An Illness From Your Past
If an illness is a part of your past, leave it there unless there is value in imparting aspects to help another. Know, though, that you must present your details without emotion. Do not unintentionally tether yourself to them in any way. Be the observer who shares something that is seen from afar without a connection to it. In this way, you can benefit those with whom you share your story without binding yourself to it. Know that if you begin to hear an inflection in your voice or emotion within your speech, you must release the story and seek another way to impart value to your audience. And do limit such discussions. They no longer serve you as this sort of validation presents other limitations that are of no merit.
Nothing is Impossible
Always be the seeker who looks to overcome and change the status quo of your life. Disconnect from myths that do not serve you. Disconnect from all that is meaningless in the flow of your life as you reconnect to a greater source, the true Source of all. And know when you do so, nothing will be beyond your reach or impossible to accomplish. And so it is.
