Leave Your Ego At The Door

Starve your ego, feed your soul goes the famous saying. Before we get into what ego is and how it can be managed, it is important to understand what ego is all about.

The term ‘ego’ comes from the work of Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis. He structured the human psyche into three parts: the id, the ego and the super ego.

The id includes basic drives and passions. The super ego is the conscience, punishing us with guilt when we do something wrong. Ego, in the middle, manages the desires of the id, while protecting itself from the super ego’s sense of perfection.

Ego’s role is to protect the image you have of yourself. It will fight to protect that image whenever it seems threatened. To quote Deepak Chopra, “Ego is not what you really are, ego is your self-image. It is your social mask, it is the role you are playing. Your social mask thrives on approval. It wants control, and it is sustained by power because it lives in fear.”

When one talks about Ego – one is referring to ‘Big Ego’ which means that a person is too full of himself/herself.

As per the behavioural scientists, ego is an important aspect of conscious awareness and can therefore never be destroyed. Having said that, ego is cause of misery and suffering, more often than not and leads to destruction of peace and harmony. Ego holds people back in their personal evolution and day to day life. It is important to tame ego to be directed towards peace, happiness and harmony.

Here are a few suggestions to manage one’s ego and be a happier persons:

1. Most important: Attitude of gratitude. It makes one thankful to God as well as to people who help one in path of life – making a person realise that he/she is not all important



2. Manage your own tendencies to overreact:  Ego gets hurt fast and one tends to react strongly to any situation that is not as per one’s thinking, completely destroying peace of mind



3. Overcome the urge to be ‘right’ every time: An egotist feels humiliated if it is not the case – and tortures himself/herself with negative thoughts



4. Get over your sense of entitlement: An egotist’s common belief is that he/she is entitled to the best. As an outcome, there is frustration and negativity towards others



5. Stop complaining: Egotists complain more – about this thing and that. It is important to look at better side of things



6. Look at room for growth: Personal development is based on growing and expanding one’s awareness and leaving one’s ego.



7. And as Osho says, nothing kills the ego like playfulness, like laughter. When you start taking life as fun, ego has to die, it cannot exist anymore.