Hello and welcome.
You don't need to get rid of the ego to heal your relationship with yourself.
You just need to stop treating it like the enemy.
This practice is an invitation to do exactly that.
To recognize what your ego has been carrying,
To acknowledge the weight of it and to begin relating to it differently.
Not with spiritual bypass,
Not with forced transcendence,
Just with honesty.
Find a position now that feels steady,
Sitting upright or lying down.
If your eyes want to close then let them.
If they'd rather stay softly open then that is okay as well.
Take one slow deep breath in through the nose and then let it out softly through the mouth.
And then just once more.
Breathing in and out.
Good.
Let the body settle into presence rather than collapse.
Rather than imagining your ego as some kind of villain to defeat,
See if you can notice it as an activity,
A function that's constantly running in the background.
Right now for instance there might be a small voice asking,
Am I doing this right?
How am I coming across?
Is this enough?
Do I matter?
These aren't character flaws,
This is your ego doing what it evolved to do.
Tracking safety,
Belonging,
Status,
Survival.
You can just notice those moments when they appear.
You don't need to push them away,
You don't need to transcend them.
Just see them clearly,
The constant checking,
The quiet vigilance,
The low hum of how am I doing?
Am I okay?
This has been happening your entire life.
Now ask yourself,
Not dramatically,
Just honestly,
What has this part of me been responsible for?
Not who it is,
Just what has it been doing?
What has this ego been doing for me?
You might notice it's been managing vigilance,
Comparison,
Self-protection,
Striving,
Image maintenance and defensiveness.
But rather than judging any of this,
See if you can recognize the sheer effort involved,
The exhaustion,
The constancy,
The fact that it never seems to get a day off.
Quietly acknowledge that this has taken a lot of energy.
And now without turning this into some kind of emotional performance,
Just offer a simple honest recognition to your own ego.
Just thank you for trying to keep me safe in the world.
Not sentimental,
Not spiritual theater,
Just true,
Just thank you,
Thanks for trying to keep me safe.
If you notice resistance to gratitude,
That's fine.
That resistance is part of the same system.
Let both be here.
Now see if you can let this land,
The idea that you,
You being the ego,
Don't have to run everything anymore.
Not because we're looking to banish this ego,
But because we have other capacities available now.
Presence,
Discernment,
Embodiment,
Choice.
The ego isn't being fired,
It's being relieved of a job that it was never meant to have to do alone.
It can still protect you when needed,
It can still help you navigate the world,
But it doesn't have to be in charge of your entire sense of worth.
Imagine what it might feel like to let the ego do what it's good at.
Strategic thinking,
Social navigation,
Healthy boundaries,
Without making it responsible for whether you're fundamentally okay.
Notice what your body feels like as that idea settles.
We're not looking for bliss or transcendence,
We're looking for just a little less tension,
A little less effort,
And a little more space.
This shift doesn't mean that you're never going to compare yourself to others ever again,
And it doesn't mean that your ego will suddenly go silent.
It just means that you're learning to stand on the same side as yourself,
Even the parts you've been taught to reject or demonize,
And that does very much include our ego.
And take one slow deep breath in,
And then just gently releasing that out through the mouth.
And as you begin to return your attention to the room,
Notice that the sense of I is still here,
But it might feel just slightly quieter,
Slightly less defensive,
And perhaps even slightly less fragile.
That's the shift we're looking for here.
It's not ego death,
It's not spiritual perfection,
Ego relationship.
When you're ready,
Gently move your body and open your eyes.
You've just practiced relating to yourself a little differently,
And that can change more than you think.
This practice comes from the course Healing the Self Relationship,
Where we explore this theme more deeply.
May this support you in strengthening the relationship you have with yourself.
