Ego

The theme “Ego” was presented by several youth members during a spiritual presentation at our monthly youth meeting. The ego is an identity of our own construction, an identity which can be false.  If we take all the beliefs of who we are – beliefs about our personality, talents, and abilities – we have the structure of our ego. 
 

 

 

 

The ego is normally viewed as a negative quality because it often suppresses all the positive qualities in us. Negative results of the ego can be witnessed all around us everyday. A relatable scenario to most is showing our superiority complex in our family, often resulting in unnecessary disputes and quarrels amongst family members. Another place where the ego comes to being is in a working environment. When one person is praised by his or her manager and he or she may feel superior to their colleagues and begins treating them differently, often with less respect. An egoist person sees everything under a magnifying glass and often finds faults within others before introspection. The ego can make us fight and argue for the sake of being right rather than focusing on the truth.

 

 

 

However, a youth member explained to us that there is a positive ego and shared how he uses it to help him in his life. This is what he said “The ego can also aid us, if we know how to use it. The ego gives you self –confidence. Self-confidence is a requisite in life, without it you will never have the determination to improve yourself or be able to experience life to its fullest by taking that leap of faith."

 

 

To conclude our presentation, we discussed and asked other youth members what effects the ego has in their lives and we were more than happy to listen and share our own experiences.

 

From this session, we learnt there is both a positive and negative ego. We just need to learn how to notice and limit our negative ego and nurture our positive ego allowing us to boost our self-motivation.