Do You Really Want to Give Your Ego the Boot?

Ego has gotten a bad rap in many spiritual circles. It is reasonable and healthy to be wary of excessive self- centeredness, selfishness and negative expression, but often this can result in disallowing healthy genuine individuality.

An alternative response to judging separation and “oneness”, transcendence and humanness, as good or bad, positive or negative, is to learn to relate to all of our parts and know how to navigate them gracefully. We can compassionately embrace our individuality knowing that it has a purpose too. As my eldest son said as a teenager, “Mom, there is a reason I am the way I am!”

Individuation is a function of growth, even part of spiritual maturity. It is where passion and aliveness lives, where deep engagement with ourselves, others and life itself occurs. Totally identifying with our ego or personality can lead to trouble of course. However, to learn to relate to it, observe and integrate it serves us well in our earthly pursuits as well as in our spiritual aspirations.

Learning to relate to all aspects of our selves, modifying where we can, accepting what we must, releasing judgments and inner conflict and opening to our authentic nature, moves us into an energy flow that affects our entire life in a strong and positive way. A healthy ego or differentiated Self is part of that equation.

Energy and Intuition
Everything is energy. Patterns of information make up every layer of ourselves and our world. These layers are entwined and interact. It is up to us through our growth in consciousness to bring harmony and flow to these layers so we have the highest level of function possible.

Our energy system is the means through which we contact and receive direct and immediate information regarding ourselves, people, places and things. Our higher nature communicates through the energy system. We call it intuition. We are in constant contact with this information but tend to not understand it, discount it or ignore it. Becoming intimate with our own energetic patterns and nature serves us well on all fronts€¦.human, personal, relational and spiritual.

Emotional reactions to people and events, half formed or unexplained feelings and hunches are all ways that our psyche is trying to inform us of the true nature of our interactions. Our thoughts, wishes, desires and attitudes are also a part of this mix. It can take some time and patience to learn this language and what is clear and honest from that which is bound up in our fears but ultimately we land in a space of Truth.

Our five senses draw our attention to the outer physical world. When we have an outer directed focus we look for our inner needs to be filled through material sources. This is usually a short lived and unsatisfying solution. This orientation leads to blame, criticism, judgments, and compulsivity (repetitive behaviors expecting a different outcome).

Being outwardly directed tends to produce reliance on a spiritual Source external to ourselves. This way of being is one of limited consciousness. Paradoxically, it is a mindset that both begins and ends in fear. An outer focus leaves us up one day down the next with no center to hold on to.
Life is about change. Consciousness that is attached to the outer world does not help us to move with the cycles of change. This does not help us to increase our capacity to function in the world in a meaningful way that leads to peace, joy & happiness. Our sixth sense draws our attention inward and assists us to truly find the means to resolve issues, release struggle and longing and receive the genuine fulfillment of our deepest desires.

This inner path allows us to examine thoughts, feelings and beliefs that lead to problems. It opens the way to creative problem solving. Expanding our consciousness to incorporate and blend physical and spiritual realities awakens us to a truth that is beyond intellectual precepts. From there we can expand creative abilities, and step into true power, and vitality.