Use Your Free Will Constructively

By Maria Erving

Many people don’t know what “ego” means and get easily defensive and offended and are saying things like “I’m not egoistic, I’m very giving!” so I wanted to give a little explanation about the ego although it will be very brief because I know how much the ego loves us to have our attention on it. It doesn’t want us to know that there are a different way to view life so it does everything to keep us having our focus on it as much as it possibly can.

Mostly through fear and a sense of separation. That we are better than others, and that we are right and all else is wrong. Ego thinks it knows everything and gets defensive and arrogant when their view of life gets threatened.

To live life from an ego perspective doesn’t mean you are “egoistic”, although in a way it’s true, because ego always thinks “what’s in it for me” and never thinks of other people in a loving way. It can make you think you do; for example when you are being generous.

If you are giving to some one with the ulterior motive of some day getting something back, or to manipulate someone to do something for you because of you being generous, then you know it’s from ego. And yes, it will convince you that it is only fair that you should get something back now that you have been so kind and giving. If not money, then at least recognition. Something that makes others look at us and admire us in some way. If we can’t see that coming, we simply don’t bother giving. Or we feel hurt by not getting the big thank you that we had expected.

When you can give to someone without even letting anyone know that it was you who gave, when you can give anonymously then it is from Spirit. When no one knows about your generosity but you and God; then the giving is from your heart. Living from Spirit means that we think of how we can contribute to the well-being of others, while doing things that makes us feel good as well. It’s a win-win way of living. And even when we are publicly generous as many hugely successful and giving people are, like Oprah for example, we are doing it because we want to inspire others to be that way too. We want to empower, and let others know that they too can become great.

Ego means being afraid. Ego loves when we worry, doubt and complain – it thrives on it, and the more people that it can get together and join the complaining the better.

Ego lives life by only perceiving life through our five senses and totally ignores the sixth. It is a very shallow and superficial way of living, and very limiting. Ego thinks that life happens to them, while Spirit knows itself being the creator. Ego loves when you think you are a victim, while Spirit knows about the lesson in the challenge and grows from it.

Ego loves lower energies such as alcohol, drugs, gossiping, fear, struggle and striving and it can make you feel as if you need it by confusing you and making you tired of even trying to make positive changes. These are a few examples. As I said; I will not give it too much attention.

What I want you to understand is that most people still view life from the ego-perspective only, but it is a choice we are making on a moment to moment basis; we are always at choice. And to make the confusion become clarity we can look at all our overwhelming feelings we have put names on and just divide them into two categories; fear and love= ego or spirit. Feeling “bad” or feeling good. What do you prefer in this moment?

How can you get yourself to feel better in this moment? Instead of asking, “Why am I feeling so bad?” ask yourself “How can I feel better?”

We always get answers to the questions we ask, so ask the ones that are empowering and constructive.

Unworthiness, insecurity, rage, anger, discouragement, worry, doubt etc are ALL based in one feeling only, and that is FEAR. So we can stop analyzing every emotion we have now and just put into the fear-shelf in our minds. (and then of course doing some inner work to dissolve them!) Joy, appreciation, enthusiasm, optimism, passion, freedom, empowerment, happiness and eagerness are ALL feelings based in LOVE=Spirit. Love is what we are, deep within, around and about while fear is the veil that keeps us from seeing and experiencing it.

I have had people say to me that “OK, so I should explain to my ego that I don’t want to listen to it anymore, then..?” and I say No. No, no, no. Do not explain anything to the ego, not your own or any one else’s for that matter. What we need to do is to just take our attention and focus away from it by saying “I can chose love and peace over this” and then look for things to appreciate. Even in the midst of any challenge we always have something to feel grateful for.

Gratitude is the strongest energy shifter there is and it is also egos biggest enemy. What if you actually appreciated and enjoyed life? “Whoa, we can’t let that happen” ego says and tries to bring you down a notch by making the voice of doubt and worry even louder; you know the inner talk we have with ourselves on a continuous basis? The voice that says you can’t do something..? You know which one I mean? Of course you do. We all have that on different levels depending on how far we have come in our remembering of who we really are. The more aware we become of the inner talk and how we talk to ourselves, the better we get in changing focus and we learn by our awareness how to make a better choice the next time. Life just gets better and better..!

The inner talk must be changed to a positive and empowering one. The easiest way to do that is to turn our undivided attention on God/our higher self and keep it there at any cost. We always have the choice between fear or love, worry or hope, anger or forgiveness, frustration or trusting that all is well, boredom or contentment— What we focus on expands.

We are a channel of powerful energy. Think of who we are. We are expressions of God! AND we also have a free will, which means we have the free will to chose how we are going to channel the creative energy that we are. Through the ego or the Spirit. Ego is not even real, it is only our mind-made thought about who we think we are, while Spirit is who we really are, and that is what our whole life is about; to again remember the greatness what and who we truly are.

Remembering who we are requires us to have the willingness to go deeper within ourselves than where we are today, to go beyond the level of the unconscious and ignorant ego, in order to discover our inner being who is awaiting for us to wake up to it.

We need to stop sleeping so we can wake up to our dreams!

Finding Purpose through the Expression of Love

Clear the Ego and see the World

Ode to my ego – farewell forever sweet and sour prince of dreams!

Our thoughts are the seeds that create our futures.

Enlightened Beings ~ The Secrets To Walking A Spiritual Path

Dear Ego: It’s Not About You. ~ Miki Bowers

Ego written by: G.jones

Ego vs Conscience

Suffering as Seen From The Eyes of the Ego

Negative self talk…… Is a personal Judgment!!

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Allow Your Mind to Stop Thinking

By Kate Loving Shenk

Jill Bolte Taylor, Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle have the same thing in common: all three had a powerful experience of awakening, and all three have been contented and happy ever since.

Jill had a stroke at age 37 and the illness changed her life. She no longer was the same person. She is a neuro-scientist who found the stroke to be fully dimensioned and instructive. She remembers every detail of the experience. Ms. Taylor became interested in the workings of the brain because of her love for her schizophrenic brother. She strived to know more about his mental illness.

The morning of her stroke, 12/10/1996, she arose to go to work with a throbbing headache behind her left eye. Thinking she could relieve or ignore the pain, she got on her exerciser and went through the motions. She looked at her body as if out of body. She noticed her hands looked like claws. Her body appeared strangely to her inner eye. Her thoughts began to slow down. She got off the machine and when she walked across the room, her body felt rigid.

As she took her shower, she marveled at the amplified sound of water hitting the shower stall. When the shower water hit her chest and felt like tiny bullets, she knew something was wrong and that she needed to get help.

Yet she felt perplexed, intrigued, almost ecstatic, feeling a new respect for “Life! I am Life! I am cellular, molecular life!” Jane Bolte Taylor saw her body, her form as light, as flowing energy, as a beautiful world within. She said her being was a conglomeration of trillions of organisms, and she felt it all. Oprah then asked Jane if she saw herself as a stroke survivor or a stroke triumphant!!

Jane was delighted to say, “A stroke Triumphant!”

Jill’s stroke was a left brain bleed due to a congenital malformation in the brain, leaving her right brain intact. The right brain represents the Big Picture, the left brain logic, language, detail orientation, and analytic thinking. She lost all memory of who she was, Harvard Brain Scientist, and also lost her identity. She wrote a book about her experience called, “My stroke Of Insight.” Jane said her first stroke of insight was a sense of peace, and she said she experienced nirvana, heaven on earth, love and compassion of mind.

But now she needed to find the motivation to come back from this feeling of total bliss, and seek help. She managed to call her co-worker, by matching forms in her head with the numbers on her phone. But she couldn’t speak. Her co-worker recognized she was in trouble and by the sound of his voice, she knew he was going to get help. Her experience in the hospital gives doctors and nurses something to think about.

Be responsible for the energy you bring to your patients.

Show up 100% for your patients. Do not be hurried or rushed.

Be a safe haven for your patient.

Soften your voice and be gentle.

As you care for an elderly patient or parent, know that they are still here. Speak to them eye to eye. Be with them.

At this point, Oprah cried a little. Jane experienced a quiet mind before she had her surgery. Some of the people around her seemed to be thinking, “Poor Jane, she had a stroke.”

But she was experiencing euphoria, a deep place of happiness, even though she could not feed herself, speak or communicate. Her mother, G.G., came to take care of her. G.G. was not negative, did not pity her, and taught her about life, how to get up and walk and count and talk again with a cheerful and persistent attitude. As Jane was learning it all again, she said she felt perfect, whole and beautiful as well as determined to master the intricacies of this physical dimension once again.

Even as she learned her own name again, who she used to be had died, never to return. Her family and friends had to let go of the person she once was and accept her for who she is and allow the freedom for the new Jane to replace the old. It took her 8-9 years before she remembered her old life. She lost all of her old emotional baggage and was determined not to regain or accumulate any more. When people laid their “old stuff” on her she said, No! I won’t do this anymore.

300px A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle A Life Changing Moment

A New Earth (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She lost her pain body, as Eckhart Tolle calls it. (The pain body is emotional pain that adds up in a person’s life, and can cause tremendous physical pain). Jill said she changed the rules and created a new game with new rules. She changed her neural circuitry. She said all of us can do this without having a stroke to accomplish the same thing. Do this, Jane says, by paying attention to your thoughts. You are not your thoughts.

By purposely living in the present moment, you are allowing the right hemishere of the brain to take over, and the mind will quickly create restoration to the physical body. Also, by concentration on an attitude of gratitude, the right hemishere takes the reins, and you function from a place of joy and connection. Jane adds, Choose the thoughts that feel good and weed out those that cause resentment, and a belaboring of past hurts. Let go of all of that. Jane says that when we die, we leave behind a memory of who we were. What is most important is: was I kind, did I love, did I treat all people and living creatures with compassion?

Jane said that as a patient, she needed the people who took care of her to recognize: