“The ego is a false sense of self based on mental concepts. It is identification with the body and mind- identification with form, which primarily means thought forms.”
-Eckhart Tolle
by Rayne Graham
The Black Lives Matter Movement is creating much needed, cried, and begged for racial injustice reform across the country and even the world. However, as anyone who is supportive of this movement would agree, there is so much more work that needs to be done. I wanted to be able to lend my voice to at least some portion of this very large injustice, therefore I want to discuss the inner healing that needs to be done from none-other than our own personal egos. I want to be clear, by OUR I mean everyone who has not had to be fearful of their life, home, family, job, and wellbeing solely based off the color of their skin but judge others for it or stay silent on the issue all together.
Make no mistake about it, this is a systemic racist issue period point blank. However, racism itself is not just skin deep. Seems contradicting doesn’t it? What I mean is that when we judge someone based off the color of their skin, it is not just an external issue. It is an internal dialogue that happens within us that solidifies our taught and deep-rooted belief systems. No matter what obscenities you scream in the face of someone who is racist and trying to control their narrative, it will only make them stand more firm within their own negative beliefs. Why you ask? If you are asking me, then I would say without a doubt it is the ego.
By definition, “The Ego is your conscious mind, the part of your identity that you consider “yourself”. If you say some one has a “big ego”, then they are full too full of themselves.” Now that we have a more working idea of the ego, lets discuss how it’s different from self-respect. When we say some one has self-respect, we are stating that they respect themselves, respect others, and respect equality. Ego, on the other hand, demands to please one’s own superiority feeling. For example, ego makes you look down on others while self-respect works two-fold, it saves you from the impact when others look down on you which in turn makes you treat others equally.
So where does this superiority feeling come from that has so many ego’s inflated in current times? Privilege, white privilege to be exact. For example, if someone doesn’t have to worry about being followed around a store to make sure they are not stealing anything based solely on how they look, that same person is going to turn their nose down at whoever does get followed around by the store staff. They will inherently think that their differences make them better and when this happens over and over in different circumstances with the same outcomes, the ego starts to grow larger and larger. This makes it impossible to tell anyone they have privilege when they are in this state because to them it’s their birth given right.
The question is at this point, how do we change this narrative? Of course, there are more things that need to be done than I can ever write on this one page, but I would like to offer ways to help those who need to work on their egos. This will raise your vibration and energy which in turn will help the collective. It is time to discard superficial feelings of superiority, it is time to start letting go of the ego and embracing the true self. By doing this, we can then embrace the true self of those around us and see each difference as a unique marker of beauty instead of something to be punished for.
Here are a few tips on overcoming your ego:
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- STOP being offended.
- Let go of the need to win.
- Let go of the need to be right.
- Let go of the need to have more.
- Let go of your reputation.
- Let go of the need to be SUPERIOR.
