Life is a journey of discovery and growth. As Human grows, they are expected to learn from each experience they have in their life and that’s what makes them different from other species. But why sometimes it becomes so difficult for them to learn from past experiences or accept the reality of life? It’s only because Ego is taking charge of the situation and creating a hustle in accepting the change. The ego is the root cause of suffering and expectations are its fruits. So what is Ego?
Ego is one’s own opinion about oneself or their sense of own worth. Ego can be understood on the basis of their levels:
- High ego: If someone gives very much importance to his own idea, opinion, or values, He/ she is holding a high (Massive) ego.
- Fragile ego: if someone gives very little importance to his own ideas, opinions, and values and easily gets influenced by his/her surrounding’s opinions they are considered to be holding a fragile ego. Such people decide their sense of worth on the basis of other’s opinions and give very much importance to others’ judgment about them.
- Balance ego: A balanced ego is when someone is ready to see themselves objectively. They love and respect themselves at the same time respects others’ opinion as well and know they have different perception in life. They believe in live and let live philosophy of life.
How ego can affect life:
A high ego means too much belief in subjective perception. People with high ego finds it difficult to accept their fault. They are so much favourite of their own self that finding fault in themselves makes them hurt. It really painful for them to see themselves as wrong.
Whereas a fragile ego can make them feel worthless or always running for worth which is created by others. In other words, they are trying to decide on the basic of something that is not in their control. This makes them feel they are undesirable, inferior, and useless most of the time.
Balance ego can make you more relate with people around you and at the same time help one person to maintain their individuality.
Why ego is at work?
The answer is the ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something but to be something. As Humans, our basic needs can be divided into two parts-
- Physical need
- Psychological needs.
The former’s work is to maintain the safety and security of our body and complete its basic needs (like Food and Sleep) and the latter one is about creating meaning in life and giving satisfactory answers to questions of our existential crisis.
Fulfillment of Psychological needs allows the person to be who they are or allows them to express their uniqueness. These psychological needs get answers to their questions through ego. As it sees the world and creates perception. Through ego, one can find who we are and once we know who we are ego dies. When the ego dies, the soul awakes.
Ego and Fear:
The ego is closely connected with fear. When ego is high one tries to be as unique and valuable as possible for them. Each time someone tries to protect their ego, they are trying to protect themselves from some undesirable adversities or fear. People with high egos find it different to be morally wrong because each time they see morally wrong people they condemn them badly. They don’t want to see themselves in such a place which is very much undesirable from their perspective. Similarly, people with fragile egos find themselves in crisis when someone gives a bad opinion/judgment about them as that makes them feel unwanted (fear of being undesirable).
So next time you are finding your ego at work, try to figure out your fear as overcoming your fear will make you find peace again.
Ego and life challenges:
Each life challenge hits our ego differently because each of them hits the same or different opinions with different intensities. Each time someone faces a problem, each time it’s a new self-discovery. That’s how a lie goes. It’s full of ups, and downs in other words, it’s like a roller coaster ride.
The good phase of life (high points) gives us strength and flow to move in the bad phase of life (low points).
Understanding the Ego from a broad perspective:
The ego is a state of being that can be changed with time. It’s like the person standing on an iron bar where the midpoint resembles balance and standing on either side can create imbalance. When the ego is merged with the wholeness of the universe, one can find the ultimate truth of life. As ego disappears after completing its objective in life which is to find your own self.
In conclusion, Ego is the process of creating meaning or worth in life. This process should be embraced full-heartedly to meet the objective of life which is to know oneself.
