Your Ego Isn’t Your True Self
Recognizing this is important to claiming your power.
There is only one person inside of your head, heart, and soul. That would be you. Only you can think your thoughts, feel your feelings, intend your intentions, choose your approach, and take your actions. Obvious, right? Not so much.
The entire anti-woke movement misses this. If they didn’t, they’d recognize and acknowledge that being woke – awake and aware – is far better than being asleep at the switch or allowing others to dictate what you do. This makes absolutely no sense to me. But then, I don’t let fear of change and the unknown disempower me. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
For many people, getting to the root core of self requires overcoming a fascinating blockage. And that is the ego.
My definition of ego is this: It’s a construct that provides a snapshot sense of self, representing who you were when mindfulness met subconsciousness at some point in the past. But it’s not who you are. This construct is the source of the comfort zone you live in, which was probably comfortable for a time, but is no longer.
Your ego feels like your true self. But it isn’t.
How is this not your true self?
The vast majority of what’s in your head lives in your subconscious mind. The subconscious is where your beliefs, values, habits, and memories can be found. Largely, they live in the background, either like an attic where you toss random things or a junk drawer full of small gadgets and fast-food sauce packets. It’s largely ignored until you need to dig for something.
In your subconscious mind, time isn’t real. In fact, there is no time. What’s more, the subconscious applies rules and concepts that it holds like a sponge, which might or might not be true to you, now. That’s part of the lack of time in the subconscious. What’s more, unless you actively go in and clean out your subconscious, old beliefs, values, and habits will continue, even when they are no longer desired.
Still with me? Okay, so, along the way, there are times everyone reaches into their subconscious mind via their conscious mind. During this time, being aware and present in what is at that point the here and now, they form an impression and build the construct that is the ego.
The ego, in that time and place, is who you think you are. I am the winner, or I am the loser, are often tied to egoic constructs. This becomes how you identify yourself. It is, however, not your true self. Because it’s aware that it’s not your true self, it fights to maintain its existence.
This is where the brain weasels, self-doubts, and fear of change are rooted in you. To overcome this and move out of a given comfort zone, the first step is recognition.
Recognize and acknowledge that your ego isn’t your true self
This step starts by engaging active conscious awareness. You first need to bring yourself into the present, here and now. Ask questions of the moment, including:
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What are my intentions?
- Is my approach positive or negative?
- What am I doing?
All of these can only, genuinely, be answered in the present, here and now. The answers make you mindful. Congrats, you’re awake and aware. Now you need to recognize your ego as a separate entity from your true inner mindset/headspace/psyche self that it is.
After you recognize the ego for what it is, you must acknowledge it. Why? Because recognition is not the same as acknowledgment. You can recognize and ignore something, which doesn’t open you to working with it. If you desire to take control of your life experience and work on being who, what, where, how, and why you ultimately desire to be, this is necessary.
Often, the snapshot in time that is the ego is incomplete. Of course it is, it’s just a construct. It was purpose-built for a time and place that is not the now. The now, this present moment, is the only really, truly, real time.
The ego prefers you stay in that past identity because it fears change and loss. Even so, it’s important we recognize and acknowledge it’s neutral in and of itself. It just is.
The ego is not your enemy
Your ego might be the equivalent of an overbearing mother. It helicopters, trying to protect you from the unknown and the scary, big, bad world. It’s not protecting you, however. It’s protecting itself.
Because the ego isn’t your true, consciously aware self, it resists when you seek to become. Empowerment is a product of the here and now, and gives you power to select, direct, impact, and even control elements of change.
The ego abhors change. Why? Because change undoes it. The ego, as a construct, is unchanging in and of itself. And since change is the one and only constant in the universe, and the ego knows this, it will fight to stay.
The ego is resistant because of fear. Fear of change. But when you work in mindfulness, ask the questions of the present that make you mindfully, consciously aware, you are empowered. When empowered, you can do amazing things.
This is never a one-and-done move. Ego is not a singular entity, either. But you can work from within to be present, here and now, as often as possible. From there, you can be awake and aware and behind the wheel of your life experience.
Practical application
Here’s how you can start to work with this. Take three minutes. For two of them, just breathe deeply in and out. Dismiss the thoughts that swirl through your mind as you do that. Then, for the last minute, from the calm center you just created and ask and answer the above questions.
At the end of these three minutes, you have become actively, consciously aware. This empowers you. It also reveals to you your true self.
Three minutes is all you need to begin. Five minutes or optimum. This is not meditation, but a relative of it. Anyone and everyone has the power to use this tool to look past ego to seek and find their true self.
Can you see how empowered you can be when you recognize and acknowledge that your ego is not your true self?
This is the seventh-hundred-twenty-eighth (728) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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