Let go of my EGO! Taking the first big step to living from your highest self.

Most of us do not go around hailing and recognizing our ego’s as a part of daily life, but let me tell you that ego is there in just about everything you do. When we can recognize and bring out the ego into the light of day to examine it, then we have crossed a major threshold in spiritual advancement that begins to break down the barriers of a separate identity from our divine potential.

The ego: The part of each of us that creates an identity that is independent, unique, special and singularly separate from the divine. Ego lives in the subconscious mind and helps to drive our behaviors, beliefs, thoughts and actions. Just because you have an ego does not mean that you are overly loving towards yourself, or “egotistical”. In fact, many times the ego acts as a constant reminder about how small and insignificant we are because we are NOT good, or we are weak, defective, or lacking in some way. The ego wants you to feel small because small is controllable and manageable.

You may ask, “Why would I deliberately allow something inside of me to make me feel small or unworthy?” Well, this is what I’m asking you too! The reason we do this is because of extreme external conditioning of the mind from a very young age. It’s totally unconscious, or working in the background of our mind. The minute we see the outside world as something that can affect us, then we develop a sense of separateness to the world. Instead of accepting what we are experiencing as what is, perhaps something that must “pass through” us in order to be understood at a higher level, we begin to develop barriers and limits to prevent facing a condition like the one that we just had that may have affected us badly.

We blame, project, get angry, fearful, deny, attach to things that “DO” feel good, and many other behaviors to elevate our experiences within the ego. The ego tells us; “You must protect, push, punish, or reward yourself.” And all this goes on without our even realizing it!

Ego detection is a major step in spiritual awakening and one that takes a bit of spiritual courage to perform. But it is one of the first steps in defining a path towards blissful, peaceful and authentic living. Your ego will fight you – Ego will struggle to keep you within the controllable conditioned mind. Why? Because letting go of ego means uncertainty, trusting in something other than the conditioned mind, allowing experiences to flow into and through us, and fulfilling ourselves with attributes that do not come from ego, such as love, compassion, peace and joy. Your ego will protect itself by projecting even more doubt, fear, unworthiness and anger towards your thoughts and behaviors. But now that you recognize that old ego, you can call it out and choose another direction. Egos are so tough because they have been a part of our life for a very long time AND they have operated unchecked within our thoughts and behaviors from the time we were a baby.

Here are a few tips on gaining recognition of the ego and developing a compassionate ego response.

· Give your ego a name. It may even help to make it a funny, goofy name – like Rufus (sorry to all Rufus’s out there) or Tiny. When you see your behaviors or actions coming from egocentric tendencies, don’t judge or be alarmed, just say, “There goes Tiny!”

· Treat your recognition of ego as a gift. Be compassionate and totally non-judgmental when you recognize ego manifesting in your life. Instead of rolling your eyes or immediately chastising yourself from acting out of ego, love the fact you saw it and are getting closer to understanding that you have choices that come from a much deeper source.

· Make up an ego opposite sheet. As a tool to replace ego actions with higher self actions, draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On one side, write down typical ego behaviors you have noticed about yourself, then on the opposite side, write down a higher self opposite behavior. When ego centric behaviors pop up, then you will have your higher choice in your upper mind to divert to.

· Develop a practice of meditation or contemplation that can be easily done every day to consider lovingly the ego centric behaviors you would like to eliminate. Consider options and choices you can make to transcend these behaviors. Practice “letting go” of your ego and visualize what it would be like to not allow the ego to influence you anymore.

Understanding and compassionately recognizing ego is expanding our higher and divine awareness. This awareness does not come from ego and that initial recognition is huge! This is like the first time you see the ocean or the first time you eat ice cream. Once you see there is more to your world than you thought, you will want to continue to grow. The ego (conditioned subconscious mind) will not like this because it is designed to protect itself, much like our survival instincts are designed. This is part of being human and it is also a great part of being divine. The fact that there IS more, and recognizing it! And the first step to experiencing more is seeing that much of our lives have been manufactured by tiny brain impulses that make up the conditioned mind that keep us very tightly controlled, the ego. The first moment we see that we DO NOT have to live through there – IS AWESOME!

Joleen Halloran is the author of Finding Home - Breaking Free from Limits under the pseudo name of Joleen Bridges. This book represents over 10 years of research and inspiration in personal and spiritual empowerment and provides readers with a pathway to overcome limits and discover authentic divine qualities in their lives and to live a life of unbounded freedom. .

Additionally Joleen is the owner of ZoomIT Marketing, a social media and internet marketing coaching and training company. Joleen's business background includes extensive experience in project management, leadership, specializing in motivational techniques and corporate culture.

Beyond Joleen's professional life, she is an avid reader and researcher of books and other materials related to her profession, but also to her special passion, which is metaphysical and spirituality topics. You can find out more about Joleen's book at her books website, www.breakingfreefromlimits.com. Additional articles of a spiritual and inspirational nature can be found at the book's website as well. The book is available for purchase at Amazon and at a discounted price directly from the books website.