Transforming the Ego

The ego is often portrayed in a negative light, and even demonized in some instances. Yet the ego performs a number of essential functions within the human psyche. The ego helps us to organize our perceptions. It performs a whole range of functions associated with judgment, reality testing, planning, and defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning and memory.

Newborn infants have no sense of self apart from what they experience within their environment. The ego makes it possible for us to individuate, which is the process that allows us to develop a separate and distinct identity. It allows us to differentiate between ourselves and everyone and everything around us. We need to possess some sense of a separate identity to establish and maintain appropriate boundaries. The ego also helps us to assume the roles and responsibilities to our friends and families and to make our individual contribution to society.

The ego helps us to formulate an identity. The sense of organization and structure provided by the ego gives us a context through which we can define ourselves and operate within the world. We generally formulate an identity or sense of self based on how we think and feel about ourselves in response to the things that we experience within our lives. We identify with our familial, cultural, racial, religious and political backgrounds. We also identify with our physical appearance, our level of education, the work that we do, the people that we associate with, our social status or the caste that we are born into, and the things that we have achieved in our life. All these things contribute to our sense of self.

Many of us have learned to shut down our feelings and emotions. Suppressed thought and emotion combine together to create a form of cement. That can cause our ego or personality structure to become very rigid. Our personality structure begins to encapsulate and that prevents us from growing and evolving. We calcify and turn into fossils.

The ego’s purpose is to function as the voice or reason or common sense. Its primary concern is for our safety. But people who develop rigid ego structures have a tendency to become very fearful, insecure, close minded and to hold on to what they have known. They are often driven by an accumulation of unprocessed pain. The rigid ego cannot let go or adapt to the present, because it continues to live in the past. The mental-emotional density of the rigid ego leaves one cut off from the infinite source of creation. Life force cannot flow through the rigid ego structure to nourish us. The resulting sense of separation can leave us feeling more and more isolated.

We typically experience a certain amount of chaos, confusion, fear and uncertainty in response to the losses, traumas or other significant disruptions in our lives. The loss of a loved one, of our home, employment, health or social standing may cause us to become fearful, anxious, depressed or experience pain. Parts of our lives that gave us meaning and fulfillment may cease to exist. We age, our bodies gradually break down and we eventually die. Everyone we know will leave us at some point. We can take nothing with us when we leave this world. We may attain wealth or status, fame, but it will all pass away in time because all forms of this world are transitory.

The identity that we create is only a very small part of who we are, but we become so invested in it, because that’s all we really know when our consciousness becomes encapsulated. We’re so caught up in the dramas of our lives and that obscures our vision of our greater being. We become imprisoned within our own creation. Our identity becomes static and we lose our ability to adapt to what is. We cannot flow with life when that happens because the context of our day to day world continually changes. We need to continually evolve in response to the changes that are taking place within ourselves and our lives. Many of our old structures will begin to dissolve around us as we open to the flow of life. It requires that we open to trust something greater than ourselves and that takes a lot of courage.

We will always have basic needs for comfort support, stability as long as we’re human and living in a body. It’s normal for us to form attachments, but things often don’t work out the way that we expect them to. And we need to have the flexibility to allow for what is, and the openness to allow our needs to be met through other sources.

Change can be unsettling at times, but these experiences provide us with an opportunity to connect with our true source, the eternal part of ourselves that live through all time and all creation. Breathe softly and deeply as you center your awareness in the middle of the feelings and emotions. The encapsulating walls of the ego become more permeable and begin to dissolve as we remember to breathe into the feelings and emotions that we experience in response to the losses and setbacks that occur in our lives. Emanations of warmth begin to flow from within as ego’s structure begins to soften. This will enable us to experience humility, a greater connection with others and begin to develop empathy and compassion.

We have a tendency to always look outside of ourselves for the source of our pain. We blame someone or something else but we may never look to the source of our discomfort that arises from within. Stop and be present with your feelings and sensations when you find yourself reacting to a person or situation. Notice what happens within yourself when you feel threatened, vulnerable, become upset or defensive.

Ask yourself "…Where is this discomfort coming from?" And then be really present with all the feelings and sensations within your body. The various expressions of our ego can be very subtle. And many of us are so numbed out and disconnected from our bodies and our feelings. We initially find it difficult to access our feelings or the physical reactions taking place in our body. But these subtle or not-so-subtle feelings and reactions will become more accessible as we learn to direct our attention to them.

Our minds have a tendency to fixate on old beliefs and ways of doing things. This fixation is reinforced by the many layers of stress and emotion that get stuffed down inside of us. This tendency to rigidify appears in the subtle bodies. The functions of the various chakras and layers of the aura are greatly impaired as they become calcified. What happens within the subtle bodies is a reflection of the changes that take place within our body and mind. The brain itself has a tendency to fall in to habitual and limiting patterns of thought and feeling. Neuro pathways have a tendency to atrophy when we’re not putting our minds to use.

Indigenous healing practices keep the mind open and flexible. Years of old emotional baggage is digested, calcified structures that kept you stuck are dissolved and the mind is reformatted. You experience a greater lucidity and that makes it easier for you to be more fully present and to grasp the range, depth and complexities of your being and life. Your sense of self expands as you incorporate more of who you truly are. New supportive structures or resources are created. The connection to your soul deepens. You become very fluid and adaptive. Your sense of purpose flows from within and you find more of the resources that are needed to carry you forward into the next stage of your journey.

There is nothing inherently bad about the ego, it just needs to evolve. The healthy ego understands that it is not the center of the universe. Instead it realizes that it is a self made construct. The health ego accepts change and adapts to changing circumstances. It provides a supportive structure that gives you a sense of your place in the world. The healthy ego can also step out of the way to allow inspiration and the divine presence to move through you.