Oakville Zen Meditation
Few motherhood tricks to tame our ego
Ego is critical to survive but it should not be also the main cause of our emotional roller coaster.
Our ego takes everything personally whether the causes are right or wrong.
Like an iceberg, our ego is submerged deep into our preconscious mind but its power is such that our day-to-day mental & physical behavior is almost totally under its control.
Like a coin, the ego has 2 sides. The good and bad sides are entangled and, like a coin, one cannot exist w/o the other one.
To enumerate all beneficial values of our good ego is not the purpose of this talk.
However being over protective and a relentless fighter, our ego is also our worse enemy.
How to overcome our “bad ego”? We cannot because, like for the coin, it is impossible to remove one side w/o removing the other one.
Here are few motherhood tricks to tame the hidden face of our ego.
Ask yourself the following questions:
“Is it my ego thinking or doing this and why?
Are x, y, z objective reality or ego-made fiction?
I maybe useful but Am I indispensable?
Practice letting go from acceptance & forgiveness
“Forgiveness and letting go are the attributes of the strong.” said Mahatma Gandhi
Let go the following:
1) Trying to control things we cannot, 2) Believing that we are always right. 3) Having a mind set and judgments for everything, 4) Having more and more of this and that, 5) Identifying ourselves with your achievements, 6) Accepting that events, people and things are what they are and not what you want them to be.
The most powerful tool to learn to let go is to practice acceptance and forgiveness.
We have to learn to forgive the people who hurt us and most importantly we have to learn to forgive ourselves too. Without the later, the former is impossible
Do not resist, fight and suppress your emotions.
Battling them make our fighting ego happier...but makes you worse. Counter intuitive
Learn to say no to the things that don’t add value in your life.
“Too many people spend money they don’t have, to buy things they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like.”
Surrender your need for ongoing ego-based self-identification.
We are not our jobs, our material possessions, our achievements, our thoughts/emotions.
Once you let your ego controlling your identification you you will never be serene because as soon as you lose one of the things that you identify with, the rest will fall like dominos and you will lose your happiness. Beside, you will look to more stuff to have and to control.
Consider a selfless act such as giving without the expectation to receive.
Practice empathy & gratitude.
“It’s not happy people who are thankful; it’s thankful people who are happy.”
Grateful people feel more empathy and compassion and feel more alive than those who don’t.
Conclusion:
Learning to let go of your negative ego is very easy in theory, however can be very difficult to execute in the moment. When I am facing negative events I always tune to my thoughts to check if my ego is online. If so, click on pause. Nothing to lose here, but a whole to win.”
Thank you
