A useful life skill is the ability to distinguish between the voice of your ego and the voice of your soul. It takes practise and awareness, it is humbling and liberating but it will give you a sense of freedom, peace, wisdom and understanding. Both voices already speak inside our heads with or without our awareness. While the voice of the ego keeps us chained and small, the soul offers us expansion and the freedom to fly.
The ego:
The ego is that part of the human personality which is experienced as the “self” or “I” and is in contact with the external world through perception. The ego is the self we think we are this self is different than our true self which we call the soul. The ego focuses on strengthening our identity and it focuses on survival. The ego’s need gets driven by four primitive instincts namely: food, survival, pleasure, and power. These instincts may vary from individual to individual as some might have more of the one and less of the other. The ego’s main job is to protect us mentally and physically and that is a powerful job. The power of the ego gets influenced by our past experiences, our hurts, our fears, if we don’t work through these, the ego becomes too powerful and then it starts to influence the world we live in negatively.
The voice of the ego (The voice of the mind):
I identify the voice of the ego as that bold rambling voice in my head, it is usually the voice which is the loudest and the voice which talks first. The ego’s voice wants to protect us from negative beliefs for example: “I am not good enough”, “I am unworthy”, I am less than”, etc. The ego voice wants to protect us from negative feelings therefore it focuses on finding things / people / stories outside ourselves to escape these negative feelings and beliefs.
The ego gets driven by fear; the intention of the ego is to keep us safe. Therefore, it will hold you back or it will withhold you from something new or different just to keep you safe (false sense of safety). The ego does not want to take accountability nor responsibility; hence it likes to blame as it does not like to be guilty. The ego does not have the ability to think about the future, therefore the ego’s focus is on instant gratification (quick gains / quick fixes). The ego’s focus is on power and control, if it feels powerless or out of control, it will look for ways to become more powerful to get back into control. This power and need for control can play out in ways such as becoming bossy, manipulation, etc. The ego does not trust; therefore, it questions everything, it tends to create doubt or speculations. When I am in doubt, I found that what if…. is part of my ego’s vocabulary.
The voice of the ego loves logic, but logic does not mean truth. The logic mind wants to understand everything as the ego doesn’t want to trust you, life nor your soul. The ego only wants to see things in its own way therefore, it is not open to other possibilities or opinions, instead it focuses on justification and righteousness. According to Roman Catholic theology, the ego is responsible for the seven deadly sins namely: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.
This is one example I am sharing from my ego voice (Self-talk /Judgement):
Your ego voice can have a different conversation with you than what my ego voice is having with me. I decided to share a conversation of my ego voice with you with the hope that it might support you to notice your own ego voice….
· Due to my wounding of insecurity and lack of a healthy self-esteem, my ego wants me to feel good enough and worthy. Therefore, when I am visiting friends or meet a stranger my ego easily goes into comparison. If my ego belief that I am equal or “more” than the other individual or that I am respected and appreciated for who I am by the other person, the comparing stops and the ego gives me permission to be confident. If this ego compares itself to the other individual and if it feels less than or disrespected, the voice tells me to withdraw as it feels inferior. If I cannot withdraw it ask of me to pretend to be more than who I am, even if it sounds arrogant. My ego doesn’t like to feel inferior as that triggers the insecurity and lack of self-esteem, therefore when I feel more than others or appreciated and respected, the ego voice is satisfied and silent.
Here are a few sure-tell signs that your ego is at work:
Fear – You can be sure it's your ego speaking if your inner voice expresses worry or anxiety as the soul trust the process of life and it speaks from love not fear. The intention of the soul is to create love and harmony while the ego creates separation or a believe that it is separate than.
Scarcity – Ego is what drives you when you feel insecure, deficient, and have a scarcity mindset. The soul comes from a knowingness and a trust of abundance, assurance, and fulfillment.
Change – The ego has truits such as fluctuating ideas, changing viewpoints, inconsistent self-talk while the soul is certain and clear with its message.
External – Your ego tries to boost itself up by amassing more on an external level. The soul is satisfied with what it has as it believes that it is enough and that it is divine. The soul comes from internal strengths and it trusts the process of life.
Justification – Ego backs up its decisions with a laundry list of reasons or excuses. While the soul has just one answer, it is a knowingness, it is truth, an explanation is not necessary. The soul speaks truth. The soul speaks from the heart while the ego likes to speak from the mind; illusions, scattered stories and rightness.
Judgment – If your inner voice speaks in judgment or comparison, it’s definitely ego. As the soul speaks from a place of love, acceptance and understanding.
The Soul:
At times we have to do what temporarily is not good for us, just so we can have more freedom later. When you look back on those moments in life, and though they were hard you know, it was the wisest choice at that time. The soul is that aspect within you, which has the answers to get through whatever life presents to you. The soul does not focus on instant gratification or on quick fixes, instead the soul has the ability to view the past, the present and the future and all experiences with a higher understanding, vision and perspective.
The soul holds the understanding to know why things is happening the way it is or why happened what happened. The soul holds peace and calmness even in troubling times, the soul knows how to trust and how to let go. The soul knows it’s own worth, it’s truth and it knows what you need to do to be free. The soul doesn’t try to escape from pain, the soul feels the pain, it learns from the pain as the soul knows that pain brings awakening to wisdom, understanding and compassion. The soul never fear its abilities or potential, the soul has all the answers to the questions therefore it teach us how to trust, how to contain ourselves and how to become a better version of ourselves, even though life is challenging. The soul knows and understands the bigger picture therefore it knows that the real “you” is beyond the identification of the body. The soul focuses on growth and on connecting you to your infinite potential. The soul holds truth, universal truths and personal truths, when you are ready to listen to truth you soul will bring insights into your reality through epiphany moments, coincidences, dreams, synchronicities, etc.
The voice of the soul ( voice of the heart):
The soul has a loving voice which encourages calmness, kindness and optimism. The voice of the soul is quiet, often silent, it does not come from desire instead it comes from a place of truth and a sense of knowingness. The soul just “know” something, it doesn’t need to make sense nor does it need a logical explanation. It’s just a confidence you feel and you just sense the connectedness of a higher power. The soul is an ever present source which is always available to guide you back to your truth and to your greatest purpose. The voice of your soul is available if you are able to quiet your ego long enough. The voice of the soul is in alignment with your intuition therefore it may come to you with a strong physical sensation in your stomach (hence the term “go with your gut”) or may feel like tingly energy in your hands or at the nape of your neck.
The Ego and the Soul:
The ego is unaware of its true nature of abundance and wholeness, so it always feels a sense of lack and acts to try to fill itself. While the soul is whole, complete, it has all the answers, wisdom and knowledge. The soul feels no lack, it is connected to abundance, joy, gratitude and fulfillment.
We tend to feed the ego if we lack awareness of these two voices. An overfed ego gets carried away with its identity therefore it create disharmony and disconnection. When we feed the ego we do not do to others like we want them to do to us. The ego forget that life is temporal and that survival is not the chief aim of life, nor are personal wealth and reputational success. While the soul voice connects us with our true self, this part of us knows that we are all connected and that life on earth is not the whole story.
The intention of the ego vs the soul?
While the ego wants us to buy stuff to impress others, the soul wants us to use money to buy freedom and meaning. The souls intention is to create connection, support and harmony.
While the ego is fearful of breaking agreements, protecting us from rejection, the soul chooses freedom, it gives us courage to break the agreements, stop doing what would potentially kill us or our spirit.
The ego do things to get the approval of others even though it brings stress and resentment. The ego will let you compromise yourself to please others. While the soul has the intention to do what’s for the highest good of all, including the self. The soul reminds us the importance of boundaries and teach us how to implement them for the highest good of all.
Our ego sells pieces of our soul, to earn credits in other’s eyes. The soul knows that it is enough and that it is whole and worthy regardless what others say.
What can be done to create a healthy relationship between the ego and the soul?
Awareness is the secret to keep the ego in tact as the ego will never go away completely but by recognizing it for what it is will automatically take its power away. The more you become aware of this inner voices, you will notice that your soul voice becomes louder and more noticeable. Your ability to listen to your soul will open many doors, many realizations and many truths for you and it always delivers the end result, peace. The awareness of these two voices will support you to make better choices. The soul voice will bring you the wisdom, the knowingness, the trust and it will open the path to your ultimate purpose, your greatest fulfillment, and a profound sense of peace.
Quinton Mundell INC.
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