🎶 what’s ego got to do, got to do with it

The ego is kind of like a yearbook you keep with just pictures of you. It has captions too about what you do, can’t do, should do, did do, will do, desire for, aspire to, etc. It’s like a living personal history.

“me”, August 2022

Or at least what you think to note as your personal history. And, this is kinda funny, you also go into the yearbook and write notes from other people to and about you. Like, you think what you think they’d think and you make notes of that, too.

You spend a silly amount of time and energy background-worrying if you’re staying consistent with what your yearbook says about you. You even want to stay consistent with negative remarks and the ones you know aren’t true.

Over time, you might become reallllllyy protective of this yearbook, this image and idea of who you are. You consult it constantly and pretty much instantaneously. ‘Hmm, let me see what that’ll mean for my yearbook, my image.’

Spiritualists give the ego a bunch of sh!t. It does make life a bit harder for you to be present and live freely. Much of what’s in the yearbook is outdated and has actually never been helpful. It’s pretty imaginary (I’d guess 100%) and yet it’ll cause all types of drama within and around you. What’s ironic is that being mad at egos or having a contentious relationship with yours is just more ego.

So then what’s not ego? It’s your heart, man. It’s when you forget about yourself and just do what’s to be doin’. No, not like you forget to eat and have a home. Like you forget to think of you as a character. You just live.

It’s a lot easier than toting the yearbook around because then you can make new choices all the time. Which is helpful because the environment, no matter how ‘the same’ it looks, is always new, too.

The ego is something you manage and that manages you. Oh wait, wait. Something that gives you the illusion of management. Since your yearbook doesn’t even have the real and true info. It only contains what you think to put in it.

I know people who spent an entire life dismissive of their most beautiful and brilliant qualities ’cause they didn’t have them noted. That means that they didn’t plan to use them or even let much space for them to be enjoyed.

If you want to start to do something about your ego, practice breathing. Really. That’s it. Anything more complex than that is just more ideas about yourself and what you think you’re doing. Yearbook stuff. Breathe yourself out of your mind chatter and into your moment. Practice taking a look and feel around. What’s here? What’s happening? How do I feel? What do I want? It’ll take some time, but you’ll start to notice those answers diverge from what the yearbook says.

It helps to be a little childlike about it and to forget to pretend you know wtf is happening and what it means. You have to… and this might scare you… delight a little in the miracle and the mystery of life instead of dread and fight it. An ego isn’t a bad thing. It isn’t any thing. It’s just an idea.

To keep your yearbook on the shelf more often, develop a practice of noticing when you’re using it instead of the truth — you’re an indefinable, limitless expression of the divine. Notice, giggle, breathe, shelve it.

Do-It-Yourself Metaphysics | in short |is a series of small, practical paragraphs to remind you of your power.

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