082: Understanding Your Ego

Our dog Maggie is incredibly protective! When she detects a strange person (like the Amazon delivery person, for example), she goes on high alert. THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG! This is (sometimes) endearing with pets, but less so when our own brain does this. Let me explain. The ego is part of the inner Self. It’s usually formed at a young age. It carries around a lot of weight. Sometimes our perception of our person-ness, our worthiness, is not great. This distorted version of reality might’ve come from school, peers, or our parents, but in any case, it’s not aligned with objective truth. When we undertake any difficult work - a diet, therapy, anything that involves real change - the brain goes into protective Maggie mode and says SOMETHING IS WRONG! You don’t want to be vulnerable, because you could get hurt, right? And you want to wait for the ego to calm down before you start trying to do hard stuff, right? Wrong and wrong! Listen, here’s a secret. Your ego is never going to go away. It’s part of you, and as a human being you are designed to protect yourself from harm and mitigate risk. The ego actually does do a pretty good job when it’s not sabotaging the things you WANT to do. As always, the key to understanding yourself and finding fulfillment is having grace and compassion for yourself. And when you’re trying to do a hard thing and the ego flares up … do the hard thing anyway. ;) 2021 Oola goal sheet: https://tinyurl.com/GoalsForNextYear2021 Our viral TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJtB8Qsg/ Subscribe on Apple! Subscribe on Android! Join my FREE parenting bootcamp! Let’s Connect! Here’s where you can find me: Learn more at https://www.coachingkelly.com. Find me on Instagram! Find me on Facebook!