Starving a Painful Ego: Tips to De-Identify With Our Stories
This article is an accompanying article to a series of posts I am creating around the Ego, through the lens of Eckhart Tolle’s work. As an introduction to the topic check out the first post on Ego, here. I’ll briefly outline the core premmis of his work at the beginning of this article but recommend reading the first part for additional context (if not already aware).
Innately, human beings seem programmed to create stories about themselves. Moment to moment we experience automatic thoughts that aim to define our sense of self based on our pasts, future and their relation to our current circumstance.
For some, this can happen to detrimental effects which brings predominantly negative self-views that undermine our worth and lead to states of anxiety/low mood. Be the outcomes positive or negative, mind you, Eckhart refers to this storied-based mode of conscious-operating as that of the Ego.
For those of us stuck in pain, a path to healing is often found when we begin to recognise our over-identification with the Ego. In this, we see that there are two streams of consciousness flowing side by side: the part of us that IS the thought, and the part of us watching the thought. You may say you are unworthy, for example, and tell yourself a story that justifies that claim, but you are also watching…
