29 Jul 2017 Comments Off on How to Deflate an Extra-Strength Ego

How to Deflate an Extra-Strength Ego

Do you ever feel like you have an extra-strength ego? Let’s stick a pin in it!

Lots of people tell me that their ego is particularly strong and I have to laugh. Let’s not give “your” ego that much credit — there is only one fear-based, guilt-inducing, headstrong ego. Don’t worry, it is only your unconscious choice to believe in the ego that has made it seem so strong and unique to you. But luckily, even extra-strength ego is a dream aspect of the Real You and You are actually the boss of it 🙂

The Real You is Spirit. The ego “you” is a figment of Spirit’s imagination. Ego plays this game in which You forget what you truly are. Until you realize this, you fully believe you are a person, and the world and the people in it seem very important.

Once you begin to grasp that you are not a person, your ego may very well kick up a fuss, impelling you to think, “My ego is particularly strong!” Ego is an immensely powerful force when believed in, but it is also, as ACIM puts it, a “quaint absurdity” (W-156) when seen through.

Your life is best spent awakening from the ego fog of forgetfulness and discovering you are peaceful, joyous, loving, formless, timeless God Mind, as you’ve always been. The one ego mind, which has fragmented into shapes and forms called people, animals, vegetables, minerals, etc., is actually like a multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia combined: it is splitting into many personas, talking to itself and seeing what is not there (hallucinating).

Ego is not your true nature; it is an acquired taste. So, don’t take what seems to be “your” ego personally, because we are all just shapes and forms of the same ego. Visualize one ego thought of separation being blown, like air, into billions of balloons and you get the human population. Put a pin in it and extra-strength ego deflates instantly.

Extra-strength ego is just a more heavily armored “balloon” — thicker rubber, you might say. When you attack another or yourself, you are just denying the Truth: that Unified Spiritual You is Perfect. When you are willing to see the good in your brother, his “body grows decreasingly persistent in your sight, and will at length be seen as little more than just a shadow circling round the good.” (T-31.VII.3:3)

As you lose your taste for extra-strength ego, you gain a taste for forgiveness. Forgiveness is a well-lit path Home with a Constant Companion Who is well worth following. This is Who Jesus followed, and you can too. At first, it can seem difficult to discern the voice of the ego from the Voice for God, but with a little practice, the “irresistible attraction of love for love” (paraphrasing T-12.VIII) takes over (click here to read about the Irresistible Attraction of Love for Love).