EGO

EGO

”if your pride is bigger than your heart and your ego is bigger than your head, grow up or you will be alone for life.”                                             “When you allow your ego to control your thoughts, everything you believe becomes an illusion.”

“The ultimate aim of Ego is not to see something, but to be something.”

The above quotes are related to the term EGO, but do they present a clear image of what Ego exactly means? Why is ego so hard to explain or describe? If we consider the layman language, then the ego is difficult to define because the ego is not one specific thing. It is actually made up of many different believes a person acquires over their life. Those beliefs can be diverse and even contradictory. To further complicate it, each person’s ego is different. The challenge of becoming aware of what your personal ego looks like becomes more difficult because our culture doesn’t reward us for directing our attention inward and noticing such things.                                                                                                                  On the other hand, EGO, in psychoanalytic theory, that portion of the human personality which is experienced as “self” or “I” and is in contact with the external world through perception. It is said to be the part that remembers, evaluates, plans and in other ways responsive to and acts in the surrounding physical and social life.

Society’s concept of ‘EGO’ has often been recognition of arrogant and bombastic behavior. How many people realize this constructed false self is a cover-up for the painful torturous thoughts and feelings of unworthiness that the world doesn’t see? Be very clear that the ego is also responsible for people who display insipid and power-less behavior. The ego creates all ‘ less-than’ human behavior. Your ego is the greatest problem in your life. The truth is no fight going on outside. The only enemy is within. The more we attach ourselves to our ego thoughts, the further we move away from our soul truth.

Our ‘dark side’ is Ego. Our ‘light side’ is true self. We can only manifest love, happiness, and success when we are operating from our true self. We will manifest recurring pain from our false side. Of course, we have to know the darkness in order to know the light, and it is only through conquering darkness (fear) that we can move into the light. We wouldn’t know ‘good’ if we weren’t exposed to ‘bad’. When we understand that our ego is a false self, we need to know how to get out of the darkness and stay out as much as possible. The more you subdue and dissolve your ego, the freer you are to experience a wonderful life.

According to psychoanalytic theory, the ego coexists with ID (said to be the agency of primitive drives) and SUPEREGO (considered to be the ethical component of the personality) as one of three agencies proposed by Sigmund Freud in a description of the dynamics of the human mind.      EGO (Latin:”I”), according to Freud, comprises the executive functions of personality by serving as the integrator of the outer and inner worlds as well as of id and superego. The ego gives continuity and consistency to behavior by providing a personal point of reference which relates the events of the past (retained in memory) with actions of the present and of the future (representation in anticipation and imagination). The ego is not coextensive with either the personality or the body, although body concepts from the core of the early experience of self. The ego once developed, is capable of change throughout life, particularly under the conditions of threat, illness and significant changes in life circumstances.

A closer look at the EGO:

The ego prevents us from acting on our basic urges (created by id), but also works to achieve a balance with our moral and idealistic standards (created by the superego). While the ego operates in both the preconscious and conscious, its strong ties to the id mean that it also operates in the unconscious.      The ego operates based on the reality principle, which works to satisfy the id’s desires in a manner that is realistic and socially appropriate.                                                                                                                         We know ego wants resolutions on its own terms and isn’t content to accept the version of higher truth that our true self embraces easily. We’re given free will. It’s our choice as to which version of the truth we connect to, and there are profound differences with these truths. Your ego always wants to re-hash and replay the past scenarios. This is a very clever trick of ego because it makes you believe that by rethinking the pain you’ll get some answers. Your ego tells you that this is a necessary process. Your ego loves to judge situations as right or wrong and takes matters very personally.

In the end, I would simply state that feeding on the dark side would never help you achieve heightened success in your life. Let not ego create any less-than thoughts within instead let it create the balance which it genuinely intends to create.

Thank you.

Sanskriti Anand Singh Rathore