As it goes, I was recently listening to a podcast and picked up a few spectacular one-liners that got me thinking... If you're familiar with two of my recent articles titled "Lately, I've been thinking..." and "The Pursuit of Inspiration," you'll know that a salient one-liner is a way to my heart or mind, I should say.
The concept that put me on a mental trajectory to writing this post was questioning whether a situation is "life-threatening or ego-threatening." This statement essentially parlays into my paramount belief about life: that we create our own realities through our perspectives.
We create our realities constantly throughout the day and in any situation. When we find ourselves in moments of crisis or severe stress, asking ourselves whether the situation is "life-threatening or ego-threatening" can be essential.
Ego is the Latin word for "I" and if you know anything about Sigmund Freud, then maybe you likely find his name synonymous with the word "ego" which is usually accompanied by the words "id" and "super-ego."
However, the more I evaluate the presence of my own ego, the more I come to the first-hand understanding that our ego is more than our pride or a negative entity. Ridding ourselves of our ego goes far beyond becoming humble individuals who are not conceded or narcissistic. The ego is the "I" coming in contact with our external environment. I'm not sure that we ought to rid ourselves of our ego as much as we ought to change and develop our understanding of it.
What I mean by this is that since the ego is essentially our conscious mind, whenever we are conscious of the situations that surround us, we are engaging our ego. The ego is self-conscious in every sense of the word, not just the one where we are having a bad hair day and worried everyone will notice.
To be self-conscious is to be aware and there are a few exercises that I've adopted that help me to further my conscious awareness. This may all seem like some crazy shit and very confusing because it is. However, what is less confusing is accepting the fact that you, right now, are conscious because you are reading this and interacting with an external stimulus.
From that, notice that you're now aware of your awareness. You are aware that you are reading because you are consciously choosing to do so. You are aware that you are breathing because you just read that line and now you're thinking about your breath. You are aware that you're doing all of these things because you are making them happen.
Well done, that was one of the exercises! Painless, right?
I felt compelled to explore this topic because the overwhelming majority of what I write can be boiled down to one theme: awareness. Be it our awareness of ourselves or of others, awareness is the fundamental foundation of this wild, crazy life.
When we write and accidentally send a text to the person that the message was about, we freak out. In this scenario, we use our "call a friend" card and immediately freak out and explain the situation. In this instance, and pertaining to this topic, the question your friend could ask you is: "is this life-threatening or ego-threatening?"
I would imagine that making this distinction can alter our reactions to multiple situations during the week and even during the day. Over the last couple of years and before I heard this concept on the aforementioned podcast, I used to contemplate the severity of my situations and try to objectively observe what is and is not worth building stress over.
Timing and time limits stress me out so naturally, I'm the kind of person who gets to the airport two hours early. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that missing a flight or having to catch another one is not (generally) a life-threatening situation. It's just one that I allow to infiltrate my peace and threaten my ego.
I'm not sure that any of this can be summed up in 1,000 words or less but what I am sure of is that if we get more individuals thinking and questioning their perspective then maybe, just maybe, we can foster a grander sense of awareness. From my experience, self-awareness begins internally and eventually has a spillover effect on those around us in the best, warmest, brightest of ways.
