Thread by @EmotionsDoctor

1) I read an interesting article by CHRISTA HOGAN about the EGO. Here are some learnings I thought to share with you.

2) Ego is our false self, the person we become so other people will like us, admire us, and accept us. Ego is also who we tell ourselves we are without question or who other people have told us we are.

3) Ego is that part of us that is overly preoccupied with survival, accumulation, and success. It works to build an identity that both sets us above everyone else and helps us to fit in.

4)“An ego that wants something from another — and what ego doesn’t — will usually play some kind of role to get its ‘needs’ met, be they material gain, a sense of power, superiority, or specialness, or some kind of gratification, be it physical or psychological.

5) Usually people are completely unaware of the roles they play. They are those roles. Some roles are subtle; others are blatantly obvious, except to the person playing it. Some roles are designed simply to get attention from others.

6) The ego thrives on others’ attention. . . such as recognition, praise, admiration, or just to be noticed in some way, to have its existence acknowledged.”

7) Recognizing Ego

Here are some other ways ego might show up in our lives. Each behavior stems from our ego trying to satisfy its need for attention and desire for fulfillment:

8) complaining, bitterness, and resentmentpeople pleasing or demanding/needing respect  materialism, accumulation, and greed competition,

9) a need to dominate others  dissatisfaction with what we have vanity or self-hatred judgments and opinions superiority and prejudice defensiveness, feeling attackedneed for hierarchy and being in controldualistic, black-and-white thinking.

10) Likewise, our ego is uncomfortable in the present moment. In fact (spoiler alert), awareness of the present moment is the death of ego.

11) Making Peace with Our Egos

So now that we know what ego is and how to spot it at play in our lives, what do we do about it? I don’t think there’s any point in talking about killing our ego or trying to conquer it.

12) We’re already too often at war with ourselves, and there is nothing the ego loves more than a good fight. And while some monks spend decades meditating to achieve freedom from their false self, most of us don’t have that kind of time.

13) Instead, we can build regular practices into our lives that bring awareness to our egos, ground us in the present moment, and free us from repeating reactive egoic patterns that cause harm to us and our world.

14) Dear @threadreaderapp, please UNROLL. Thank you.