The ego which is our collection of ideas about ourselves as individual human physical beings has been under severe attack, for a while now as we continue our journey of awakening to our deeper truth. This is for good reason, and a primary approach of transpersonal hypnotherapy is to help soften our allegiance to the egoic identity and awaken to the true or inner self, thereby releasing problem states.
However, while attaching to our ideas of ourself is the fundamental cause of our problem states, I argue here that having an idea of self is not in itself a bad thing. I have been recently discovering this for myself, when I recognised that I had been harbouring a very vigilant sub-personality that actively and unceasingly policed myself and others at anything that could be seen as ego inflating or self-aggrandizing thought and behaviour. While this sounds like a healthy sub-personality, this was in fact a sub-part that has often kept me from stepping up to be more and not fully allowing the soul to shine in all its wonderful colours, and furthermore this supposedly well-meaning part would require that I play judge or feel competitive with others who did allow themselves to shine without apology.
Hence the inspiration to write this post which reflects a more embracing and balanced perspective, which is to recognise that having an ego and a sense of self is not the problem, we wouldn’t do very much or go anywhere without the healthy sense of self. The problem is when we allow ourselves to be run by the imbalanced ego mind.
However, while attaching to our ideas of ourself is the fundamental cause of our problem states, I argue here that having an idea of self is not in itself a bad thing. I have been recently discovering this for myself, when I recognised that I had been harbouring a very vigilant sub-personality that actively and unceasingly policed myself and others at anything that could be seen as ego inflating or self-aggrandizing thought and behaviour. While this sounds like a healthy sub-personality, this was in fact a sub-part that has often kept me from stepping up to be more and not fully allowing the soul to shine in all its wonderful colours, and furthermore this supposedly well-meaning part would require that I play judge or feel competitive with others who did allow themselves to shine without apology.
Hence the inspiration to write this post which reflects a more embracing and balanced perspective, which is to recognise that having an ego and a sense of self is not the problem, we wouldn’t do very much or go anywhere without the healthy sense of self. The problem is when we allow ourselves to be run by the imbalanced ego mind.
A healthy relationship to the ego is necessary, desirable and very helpful not just to our very physical existence, but also has a vital role to play on our awakening journey. While we want to constantly change, soften and refine how we relate to the egoic thinking process, I do not believe that the goal is to get rid of the ego, which is in fact an impossibility, or to purify it out of existence or disown it. A healthy balanced Ego is in fact necessary and helpful in several respects, including:
· The healthy ego infact provides us the charge, desire, urgings and even ambition to change, to make things better, to grow and to move toward what we want, and to be more of the self. It can greatly facilitate our drive towards what we prefer. When we attempt to run with no ego or with too much humility can on the other hand often lead to issues with confidence and self worth.
· When the ego or personal identity is rightly functioning and balanced it becomes the very vehicle for expressing the nobility and gifts of the soul
· Even the imbalanced ego has a helpful function, in alerting us to our inner state and to the fact that we have moved away from balance. We would do well in this regard to pay attention to what the ego is pointing us to whether this is defensiveness or fear or other feeling states, without being pulled in to drama or acting out on it's impulses.
The journey is, I sense, about finding the right balance between egotism (ie self-importance and false pride is self) and humility. True power is off course expressed through humility and in recognising the outer universe as merely symbolic of the inner world. In this journey a healthy refined ego can be an aspect of our embodiment also in service to the soul, allowing a more fuller expression of the gentle flowing river of spirit.
It is off course ever in our best interest to cultivate states of alert awareness, and of deep listening to our inner voices and emotional states, so we do not allow ourselves to be run by or carried away by this part of the mind, particularly to situations and thoughts of us being either the aggrieved victim, or as being specially gifted or specially great. When we do come across these states we can relate to the ego mind as we would to a little child, reassuring it with love and the knowing that everything is well.
Beyond this awareness, I think it is also healthy to acknowledge that the ego serves an important function as a part of our physical embodiment. When in balance and properly functioning, we can allow it to be a vehicle so that we may express as our Higher Selves and bring forward our gifts, and talents to serve the higher good.
In the context of awakening we want to soften our addiction to thinking and identification in terms of the personal self or ego. As we continue to attend to the work of purifying and dis-identifying or detaching from an idea of personal self as identity, a healthy egoic strength now allows us to be more of who we are, and to enhance the journey of the soul.
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