Is it in our best interests to eliminate ego altogether?
There is this thing in spiritual communities that we need to do away with ego entirely.
Really? entirely? Isn't it about evolution? What are your thoughts on that?
Here are mine.... I believe that we need to understand what meaning one has first placed on ego. What have you made ego mean? Sit with that for a moment. It's a great question. "What have I made ego mean?"
My thoughts on this is that ego keeps us safe, provides motivation and assists with confidence - all good things right? I feel that ego is inherently a part of us - not good or bad - it simply is. Sure there are two sides to ego - positive and negative, yes, and it pays to remember positive and negative differ greatly from good and bad. Sometimes its the negative side of ego that truly helps us to evolve. Sometimes growth and evolution comes through the positive side of ego.
Recognising when we are being ego driven, when we are allowing our ego to keep us small, or to make things all about us and remaining completely self-centred or to get something out of a situation at the risk of belittling or harming another being is an entirely different story. Bare in mind, that this harming of another being, includes the harming of ourselves. Stripped back to our core, we are cosmic beings of light living an earthly human experience. Now when we remember that, we know at every level that our true essence would NEVER speak to us in a less than loving, (sometimes that loving is firm) and encouraging way. Anything else is the negative side of ego.
Life happens, things happen, things change. As my mum used to say... We either get up and get on with it and learn from it or let is take over us entirely. Handing permission over to our ego to run the show - yeah, that's not such a good thing I don't think.
Egotistical motivations can creep in unexpectedly, in unexpected ways. Most of these are around safety and the majority are coming from our subconscious programming and our traumas. The best thing we can do here, is to dive right in. Dive deep to learn all you can about your motivations and subconscious programming. Once we discover what was once hidden, we then have choice as to how we want to move forward in regards to, how, and who, we want to become. This provides the opportunity for an ego or aspects of that ego to die. That is AN ego, NOT THE EGO. A good reinvention can be exciting and if we are truly to be on our spiritual path of life learning, then this is something we will all have the opportunity to experience many times over.
In the tarot, change or the upcoming death of an ego can be represented by the Tower. People are falling, unsure where they are going to land, let alone what life will be like when they get back up! There is fire and lightening and crashing and breaking - scary stuff when going through it. Personally I believe it is better than the alternative - which is to remain trapped, small, restricted, held back by the chains that bind us to our BS stories, traumas, situations or environments - which, by the way, are mostly self created. These energies are represented in the tarot via the Devil card. What we most need to experience here from a tarot energetic point of view is the Death card. Total transformation is expressed here. We become rebirthed with a new heart so to speak - a new way of looking at things. A new way of feeling. A new way of being.
This new heart energy is represented in the tarot by the Ace of Cups. It is in this energy that I personally work with my ego (and yes it is a work in progress, as I signed up to this school of forever learning). To me ego is about accepting others and their choices whilst nurturing and loving myself and being fierce with my boundaries and perimeters whilst loving others at the same time. It is running every choice through my heart. It is practising unconditional love for self, others and all beings whilst understanding it is absolutely ok to say no when I need to protect myself or my boundaries. You could say it's a bit of a "Bless you, now lovingly fuck off!" type of take on the situation.
I've done a lot of work on my subconscious beliefs, my values, old traumas and my truths. I've experienced many an ego death and reinvention. (I can help you too, if you choose) I've lost people, family, friends and money along the way. I've experienced total change of circumstances, situations and environments. I've had moments of realisations - huge moments actually. Would I change any of it? Nope - none of it. This is how I learnt to recognise what was good for me, to recognise who wanted what was best for me and who wanted to silence me. Who was stealing and cheating on me and who was providing a safe and nurturing haven for me to transform, as well as who and what I had outgrown. AND all of these things - yes all of them, my ego was showing me that those things were a living part of me. Yes, there were other people involved that's for sure, and the biggest learning was that I represented ALL of these things to me, myself and I. Everyone and every situation comes into our lives to show us the reflection of who we are and what we need to work on. Now none of my growth or transformation would have been possible had it not been for my ego. So, is it in our best interests to eliminate ego entirely? Personally, I think not. To transform, transmute, change and grow ego - absolutely, yes.
Ready for your next adventure? Ready to transform? Giddy up! I have a certain set of tools that can help you with that - connect here.
Love Life Big
Big love
Lu xo