Self Awareness is an important step in your spiritual growth and will open the door to many possibilities. As you begin down a meditative path toward self awareness, you will introduce yourself to a stranger. Yourself. The Inner Self. The Real You. The Head Cheese. The Big Kahuna!
When first starting, one of the key steps is to know the difference between your ego and your true self.
Ego vs Self – Who is in control
Who is running the show? Ego or Self? It is hard to tell the difference when they are both coming from the same place. The first step is to figure out which is which.
Ego
The ego is you, and you are your ego. What you like, feel, need, want. All of these feelings and desires are your ego. Your ego is how you see yourself out in the world, and it is this world and the people around you that shape your ego.
As we grow up, our family and friends and even the environment we grow up in will shape your ego into the person you are today.
If you grow up in a violent atmosphere, you will live a violent life.
A coddled child sheltered from the world will remain sheltered as an adult.
Victims of bullying and emotional abuse will remain victims. Often you don’t even see it happening until it’s too late.
Do not worry. There is hope. There is always hope. Despite popular belief, your ego is not You! You are a fluid, ever-changing being that has everything you need to live a better self.
True Self
The Real You. Always in the back of the room waiting for a chance to shout. Deepak Chopra says that our inner self or consciousness is “the basic stuff” or our minds. Always present, never changing. Unlike the Ego, where it is constantly changing and adapting depending on our current environment or needs.
Have you ever been presented with a question that you did not know the answer to, but suddenly the answer “popped out of nowhere”? That nowhere is your inner self. Your true consciousness.
If you have never meditated before, I would like for you to try something. Take five minutes out of your day. Turn off everything: lights, radio, TV, phones, Kids, animals. Find a quiet spot where you can sit comfortably. Close your eyes and “listen” to the quiet inside you.
This quiet is buried beneath all of the days’ stresses and worries. Push them away. Tell them to shut up. Breath deep and slow. Listen to the silence for five minutes.
Meeting your true self is not like walking up to a stranger in a bar and saying hello. Or is it? Every person’s experience will be unique, and if it helps to picture yourself at a bar, then that’s fine. You’re in a place where everyone knows your name, and they are always glad you came.
Will the real You please stand up
Throughout our lives, our ego changes to the environment. The person you are today is not the same person from twenty years ago or two days ago. Our lives are made up of experiences, and each one changes us. Sometimes the changes are small, like a taste preference, or they can be huge, such as a car accident that puts you in the hospital for six months. Each of these experiences changes and molds us whether we like it or not.