Ego management: Did the Universe make a mistake with the ego? November 9, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management, Leaders in Personal Development.Tags: controlling ego, Eckhart Tolle, ego management, managing the ego, personal growth, self-improvement, spirituality
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With all the attention we give to ego management as being a necessary component of eliminating negative thinking in our personal growth efforts, you have to start to wonder as to what useful purpose the ego might serve.
During a discussion period at an Eckhart Tolle seminar, in fact, a member of the audience asked Tolle the question, “Did the Universe make a mistake with the ego?”
Tolle replied that although the ego “may look insane” to us now, it is actually, from a higher perspective, undergoing an evolution as we progress as human beings.
He said that at one time we did not have an ego. That was the period in which we were at “oneness with nature.” This period Tolle explained, embodied the myth of the golden age, or as the Old Testament described it, “Paradise”.
The development of language Tolle says marked the beginning of our ability to think thus leading to the “voice in our heads” that we associate with the ego. Tolle says that at first, people thought this voice in their heads was the manifestation of the gods speaking to them.
At some point however, the voice in our head became all pervasive and thus took away people’s sense of their real identity, an identity which was non-ego-based, and rooted in their basic being. Thus, our identity was no longer in the roots of our being and our identity became associated with the voice in our head.
Tolle says that as we work at going beyond this form of the ego we are going back to the core of our being.
The take-away from Tolle’s discussion would appear to be that certain aspects of the ego were, and still are, necessary for thinking and progress, but for inner peace we need to go beyond the ego as the chattering voice in our head, and do the inner work to discover the peace of knowing our true being.
Break a negative habit by making its elimination part of a positive larger goal October 18, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management, Self-Discipline.Tags: achieving goals, controlling ego, ego management, goal setting, personal development, self-improvement
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As part of our programs of personal development or self-improvement, and ego management, we include looking for ways to accentuate our good habits and for ways to reduce or eliminate our bad habits.
I recently came across a comment of someone who eliminated their smoking habit.
This person indicated they were facing a number of serious challenges in their life, and decided that it was foolish to use up valuable energy through the habit; energy that could better put into meeting the challenges in life that the person was facing.
Overall, this translates into a concept of removing the energy-draining properties of a bad habit by making the elimination of the habit a key component in achieving a larger positive goal.
Instead of the focus being solely on the negative aspects of the habit, attention should thereby be given to the positive potential of increasing our contribution to achieving our goals in life and in our personal development key result areas, by eliminating the habit.
Personal Development Ideas 