“Whenever I climb I am followed by a Dog called ‘Ego’ -Friedrich Nietzche
Learning how-to love and accept ourselves at any given time is a never ending course in self-mastery. With the ever looming super-ego spouting out more than 3000 adverts filled with subconscious messages of what our life ‘should’ look like each day, finding our authentic thoughts and expressing our unique voice can often be an overwhelming, chaotic and for many an arduous task. The term ‘ego’ is literally derived from Latin and translated into English means ‘I’. So if ego means ‘I’, why do so many spiritual teachers want us to get rid of ourselves?
Have we turned into a self-abusive culture who has now turned on ourself? Many popular spiritual movements blame the ‘ego’ for nearly everything negative that occurs in our world but what most people rarely talk about is the fact that our ‘ego’ or ‘our physical self’ has the capability and the power to make those detrimental changes we spiritually yearn to see manifested into the physical form. By blaming the ‘ego’ for all of our problems, we are essentially doing nothing more than giving up responsibility by becoming victims of our own reality and creating an inner duality which can only be mended by accepting those aspects we like and do not like about ourselves.
The main problem seems to be that the ‘ego’ or again ‘self’ always gets a bad rap but the ego only has as much power as you give it. You could easily choose to operate from your soul as well as your heart.
- The ego only has as much power as you give it.-
So how do you sort through the heaps of mind garbage to find out what’s yours an what’s not? Well, the answer may be a lot easier than you may have previously thought, yet it is the hardest thing for most of us to do. Take responsibility of your mind. Three Simple Ways to Quiet Your Ego If you are a person who loves to live life to the fullest, you may fall into the awful habit of leaving your mind on overdrive. Do you constantly find yourself thinking of things you have to do in the future? Or reflecting back on what someone else did or said to wrong you in the past? If so you are loosing out on experiencing the present moment.
Below are a list of three life rules that I use whenever I notice that I living on ego overdrive.
1.)Go Back to Nature. The ego loves to make plans but hates spontanaiety. One way to take back your power is to spontaneously get into action by going for a walk or cycling in a natural setting. Sponataneous trips into nature allow your ego the rest it deserves after planning an plotting all day. A healthy ego can be very helpful when you see something that needs defiant change and take action to make that positive difference but if you don’t get into the habit of turning off your motor, you ego like any other engine can and will burn out.
2.) Meditation and/or Hypnosis. If it were up to the ego we would be busy trying to get a million things done a day. The problem with ‘trying’ to do everything is that we rarely get any one thing mindfully done. Active and daily meditative practices allow our mind a peaceful break from the busy traffic flow of the 70,000 thoughts our brain produces daily. Learning how-to calm our mind is a wonderful way to fully experience the present moment. Regular meditative practices not only give your mind a peaceful break but they also lead you to the deeper realization that we are all soul’s having a physical experience.
3.)Give.The third way most effective way to exercise your ego in a healthy manner is to give! Find a creative outlet to exercise opening up your heart and feeling more from your soul! There are so many children worldwide who would relish in having loving and positive mentoring, seniors who feed off the warmth of another caring soul and even your next door neighbor might need someone to relate to. You don’t have to look far to see that the people who need you to be balanced the most are usually right next to you.
When you open your heart to compassion your ego is automatically silenced and you fill a void which no material object can ever replace. Integrating these peaceful, compassionate loving and practical routines into your day will energize your spirit and reaffirm what really matters most to you on your journey through life.
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