What’s The Single Best Thing You Can Do For Yourself Today? Try Letting Go Of Yourself Just a Little Bit

The Egoic Mind is a state of mind in which the ego is in control of your thoughts and emotions. The inflated ego or self-image is one thing, but the problem with this is the Egoic Mind is characterized by negative self-talk and unhelpful thinking patterns. It can lead us to feel dis-empowered, hopeless and pessimistic about our future.

This morning my attention was drawn to a piece written by fellow blogger David Gerken in which he answers the question "What can I do for myself today?"

An interesting thought that challenges one's perception of a rarely discussed subject.

There are, of course, a myriad of things we can do for ourselves each day, but Gerken believes that the healthiest thing you can do for yourself is to let go of yourself. What does he mean by that?

"First, by ‘yourself,’ I mean our egoic self. That’s the you that you’ve cobbled together for decades under the false assumption that it would protect you from the vagaries of life. It’s the you that feels the need to feel superior to others, that feels slighted at a verbal dig, that has to feel ‘right’ while everyone else is ‘wrong’," he emphasizes.

By contrast, spiritual seekers often believe they need to add to themselves. The truth is, we don’t need to add anything to ourselves. All we need to do is subtract from ourselves, namely subtract or let go of, our egoic selves. Simply stated, the beautiful, peaceful, compassionate conscious self within us all just needs all the egoic gunk smothering it to get out of the way.

Take it from people like the Buddha, whose central aim was elimination of the self, otherwise known as reaching a state of nirvana. Eckhart Tolle, Mickey Singer and a host of other spiritual heavyweights, past and present, also placed elimination of the egoic self at the top of the pyramid.

Recognizing when your egoic self is rearing its insidious head is the most important step in the whole process because we are so used to reacting to the demands our all-powerful egoic selves exact upon us that we don’t even realize when it’s happening. We’ve been acting like this our entire lives so it’s hard to catch ourselves. Bottom line: We have to devote significant attention to becoming aware when our egos act up.

Because it’s only then that we can get to the all-important step where we relax our minds and bodies for a short time and then let that small bubble of egoic self rise up and out of us, making us a little bit lighter, a little more awakened and just plain happier.

This all calls for a closer look at the matter of the egoic self.

Superiority and the Egoic Self: True power comes from your connection with the formless, non-temporal realm of pure consciousness, not the ego. It will not matter how much you achieve or acquire in life, when you're in the pursuit of power for the sake of feeling superior over others, you will only be living out the desires of your pseudo self. 

There is no denying that the feeling of superiority is euphoric to the egoic-minded. We see this all the time in the workplace when someone is suddenly put into a position of authority and as a result, a completely different personality emerges. The super humble co-worker of yours gets appointed to boss, and the ego, sensing power, comes out of hiding. The new power position goes completely to his or her head. In its extreme, egoic-minded superiority in people can be deadly because it elevates the ego to the point where the individual stakes their entire identity on what he or she has achieved.

Many egoic-minded individuals have been known to commit suicide after suddenly losing worldly forms such as success, power, or fame. Since all form is temporary, when you identify completely with forms, surfaces, or appearances, you have wrapped your entire sense of “I” around nothing more than dust in the wind.

In many world religions, the renunciate is an individual who renounces all earthly pleasures and becomes an ascetic, living an austere, simple life devoid of material things. But just because this individual has given up all material desires, it does not mean they have transferred the ego. Contrarily, the renunciate may even have an ego larger than a Wall Street banker.

What appears to be on the outside is not necessarily indicative to the size of the ego on the inside. Egos come in all shapes and sizes, and as the acronym version of the word suggests, “Everyone's Got One.” 

Don't get me wrong, ego is not all bad; it can serve as a tool. But if the tool is guiding the hand instead of the hand guiding the tool, that is where we can get in trouble. And a lot of humanity has gotten in serious difficulty by letting this tool run the show. This makes it particularly imperative that we take the time to go within and let go of our unconscious ego.

Many times people will adopt a particular lifestyle or belief system so that the ego can live out its need of feeling superior to others. Identification with a particular religion or even atheism can also serve the ego's desire to feel superior. As long as there is a group or tribal identification, the “I am right and you are wrong,” stance will support the feeling of superiority in the ego.

The ego pervades every field, religion, philosophy, science, art, nationality, race, class, profession, and social status. As long as the need to feel superior over anyone in any way is present, one will still remain trapped in the egoic mind.

Memo to self: Get over whatever is left of your ego! It can be a good thing to do for yourself today -- among other things. Certainly, none of it is worth killing yourself  over.