Before I start talking about ego, I want to make sure I am clear about the definition of ego. Ego is how YOU are viewing reality, and you believe everything you think. And a lot of times you become the victim and everyone else the villain.
The ego is a self-generated identity consisting of every belief about who and what we are: personality, talents, likes and dislikes. The ego is what separates us from the present moment, it’s all the thoughts in our head. It’s the identity that we created to reinforce the stories we tell ourselves.
When you operate from ego, you are usually obsessed with right and wrong, blame and shame, we don’t act from a loving place, but a judgmental place. We are not acting from a place of “how can I serve”, “how can I help”, or “how can I give.” Instead from a place of “how do I look?” and “What do I get?”
Being able to identify the behaviors of the ego and intentionally work on making a different choice will profoundly change your life.
Ways to manage your ego:
- Stop taking things personally- The ego gets offended, and it thrives on conflict and pain, when something triggers you, your ego takes over.
- Forgive others and yourself- The ego loves being right, it thrives off being right. What keeps you from doing what you need to do to move closer to happiness and truth. When you can separate from you need to be right you are now living into your higher self.
- Pay attention to your emotions and when you are getting triggered, when you get upset, start judging, and become negative towards someone or think you are better than someone. Then redirect that feeling onto yourself, and ask yourself “why do I have such strong feelings and emotions about this? Why is this affecting me so much? How can I change my thoughts and think with my higher self?”
The best part about controlling your ego is that it’s a skill that you learn to do throughout your life if you can identify it. Let’s be honest we all know “older” people who still are controlled by ego but that is a choice, they are choosing that because they are not working on it. Know that you know what ego and higher self are, you can start doing the work to not let the ego control you.