WHEN EGO GETS IN THE WAY

I remember vividly how the term “ego strength” struck me the first time I heard about it. It drove my attention as a seed nested in my mind and heart, growing along my decisions, actions, aspirations, successes and failures. It has always been with me coping with my reality.

Ego – sense of self – is a result of our constant coping and learning with our environment, family, school, social life, work, career, experiences through life and certainly our coping with our self. A person’s sense of self, nourished with useful or harmful frames, may trigger a whole menu of emotions and behaviors impacting our lives and the life of others.

Strength can be seen from two different sides: our ability to resist and endure “external forces" — attacks, hostilities, scarcity, setbacks, vicissitudes. And on the other side, our ability to use our strength to face, respond, counteract, confront a given situation. Thus, ego-strength works from resisting storms and bad times to responding to our own decisions over given situations.