I’m a big fan of the ego. I never jumped onboard the Beyond Ego, ego bashing craze of the ’80s. The ego has its place. It is an integral part of our physical/spiritual experience. Sure, sometimes it gets a little out of control and gets rolling on some really wonky ideas that take things a bit too far off course. But our ego is a critical piece of the puzzle – the properly functioning, balanced machine consisting of the mind, body, and spirit.
However, when the ego gets a little too controlling, a little too dogmatic and way off base, it’s important to take some action to regain that crucial balance; it’s time to quiet its dominion and hush its influence. It’s time to check the validity of the ideas the ego is operating on and influencing from. We need to ask ourselves if the information in the data base the ego is running on is actually true. And to do that effectively we’ve got to make a shift to that magic command center space of our internal place of certainty. This is a daily activity. And in turbulent times like these, likely a multiple times a day practice. When life gets crazy, scary, stressful, and especially out of control, the ego may spin into hyper-drive and attempt to exert extra control to keep us “safe” in this world of fear and doubt. It’s only stepping up to help, but good intentions aside, the ego is interfering with our peace and productive power and pulling us far off track. Still, We needn’t go beyond it or try to silence its voice, we just need to re-establish our center.
When the ego is interfering with your structure of feeling safe, do this: Get into your certainty by finding the space in your body that feels safe. Connect with that deeper knowing inside yourself. Open rather than constrict, settle in, relax, breathe, connect. Quiet your mind and expand your heart. By getting quiet or loud, silent or screaming, still or dancing -meditate. Establish a focused connection to Self and God/The Universe. The act of bringing yourself back to that focused connection will allow you to feel the certainty of yourself and the connection to the comforting magic of it all and re-balance the powers that be, the ego included.