The English language has done a great disservice to the word “ego.”

When someone is overly self confident or narcissistic, we might say “[so and so] has a big ego.”

Indeed, this is the use of the word that most people are familiar with.

But, that’s really just one side of the concept. The reality is that “ego” is our sense of self, or sense of otherness, good or bad.

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Someone with a big ego is just as likely to have a negative sense of self as they are to have an inflated sense of self.

Having a big ego is the opposite of feeling unity with humankind and the planet, not the opposite of humility.

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Associating with one’s ego is to view oneself as an endpoint. Someone things happen to, or for.

Dissociating from one’s ego is to view oneself as a thoroughfare, a node in a larger system through which the universe works.

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So, if you find yourself thinking too highly or too low of yourself, tune into some Ram Dass or Alan Watts this year and start chipping away at that ego.

And remember, we are all one.

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