You know how sometimes you hear the voice inside your head cheering you on and other times it's just your worst enemy?!
One day it's all "You got this! You're the best! You can do anything. Yayyyyy!" and then the next day it's all, "You suck. You can't get anything right. You stupid piece of _________!" (Feel free to use your imagination on that one.)
It's so confusing right!? Like, why the bipolar thoughts? How many voices can fit up there anyway?
Well, there's actually a perfectly good explanation for it. You see, there are two voices living inside your head. The real you, aka your highest self, and your ego, which pretends to be you, but really isn't.
Highest Self vs Ego
Your highest self, which I will also refer to as the real you is the voice of truth, intuition, and love. I also like to think of it as the voice of spirit because it always represents how God or the Universe feels about you and your life.
It is a wise guide inside of you. It remembers your magnificence and splendor and walks with you on your path of life.
Your ego on the other hand, likes to call itself the "voice of reason", but really it's the voice of fear. Its purpose is to hold you back by keeping you "safe" and comfortable", but it's really kind of an asshole.
It represents your false self, separation, fear, specialness, defensiveness, consumption, and insanity. Hence why you should not let it rule your life.
You'll be able to tell the difference very clearly with the examples below.
things your highest self (aka the real you) says...
I am the creator of my own reality.
Anything is possible.
I am an eternal being.
I love changing and evolving.
Life is easy for me.
There is always enough to go around.
We are all one.
Shit your ego says...
I'm not ______________ enough.
I have no control over my life. Everything happens to me.
My dreams haven't come true in the past so why would they in the future?
I am nothing more than a temporary body on this planet and when I die I'll be gone forever.
Change is scary and bad.
My life is hard, I mean just look at it!
I must work hard and fight for what I want because there is never enough to go around.
We are all seperate.
How to tell them apart
Since the ego often disguises itself as truth, it can be tricky to tell when the voice in your head is in fact you, or your ego. Luckily there is a very easy way to tell them apart. By how they feel.
Basically, if the thought feels good, it's probably the real deal, if the thought feels bad it's most likely your ego. (Of course, there are exceptions like if you're in a potentially dangerous situation and your intuition is warning you to run, but for the most part, ego feels bad, real you feels good.)
“No one has seen the face of the ego. It is like a ghost that we accept as a controlling influence in our lives. The reason no one has seen the ego is that the ego is an idea. The ego is a mental, invisibale, formless, boundaryless idea. It is nothing more than the idea you have of yourself. Ego as a thing is nonexistent. It is an illusion. Entertaining the illusion can prevent you from knowing your true self.”
You can also tell them apart by their tone of voice. If the thought is kind, nonjudgmental, and calm it's usually you. Your highest self will always support you and build you up. If the thought is mean, judgey, sarcastic, frantic, or full of anxiety, it's definitely coming from your ego.
The ego always represents some form of fear. It feels like anxiety, stress, worry, doubt, frustration, disbelief, separation, limitation, blame, fear of failure, fear of something new, or fear in any form really! Fear has ego written all over it.
Now now now... just because our ego can be a bit of a bully doesn't mean we should go hating it and calling it evil. Especially because what we resist persists. By bashing your ego you're only gonna fuel it even more.
Surprisingly, a lot of spiritual people do villainize the ego with phrases like "the ego is the enemy" and so on, but really it's not evil, it's just irrelevant. Because love is the ONLY thing that is real, which makes fear based thoughts not real. They are just the ego at play.
So why do we even have egos in the first place if they don't seem to help us? My theory is that our ego is something like an appendix. We obviously had it for some good reason once upon a time, but nowadays we can easily (and in some cases NEED to) survive without it. It's the perfect metaphor really. #thankgodforevolution
So... now what?
Now, I know what you're probably thinking. "Well... crap. Apparently, I'm very familiar with my ego, but I seem to be lacking in the higher self department. How do I start living less from my ego and more from my true self?
Well, that's being saved for another blog post. Guess you're just gonna have to subscribe and read about it later. ;)
Luckily, you now know how to recognize the ego at play and tell the true apart from the false, which is the first step to getting back in touch with the real you! So in the meantime, start shifting your thoughts and only validate the good ones and stay tuned for more!
