Ego Distancing Protects Mental Health
During this pandemic, the whole world is focussing, fearing, and fighting to save their lives by indulging in ways of social distancing and physical distancing. No doubt, the reason we are adopting these precautionary measures is to safeguard ourselves.
However, the truth is that we are all becoming more fearful and more reactive.
FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real
Every day we hear new theories and stories, and we imagine a new scenario painted by everyone’s collective fears. We unconsciously start projecting a much worse outcome resulting in becoming even more fearful.
Agreed, when unknown and unforeseen situations arise, our natural coping mechanism is to protect ourselves. However, by shutting and identifying ourselves with those fears, are we not stifling our emotional and mental health? The more we close ourselves, the more we hold on tight to what we have and isolate ourselves.Fear resides in our ego. Our ego is nothing but layers and layers of stories and experiences that validate our identity.|
Where is our ego?
Ego is in mind, or many believe ego is the mind. Our mind is a potent tool because it can create anything we wish. It is a place of illusions. All our thoughts and beliefs are woven by the mind. As new-borns, we come with a blank canvas and paint our ideas as we grow and absorb through our surroundings. This is how our ego is developed.
Why is our ego so essential for us?
Our ego makes our presence real. As humans, we need to identify who we are, and our ego gives us personality and identification. It consists of our roles, responsibilities, and achievements and is formed by our belief system. Our ego helps us justify to ourselves why we live and act in a certain way. Our experiences validate our perspectives and build our ego. Anything external to our belief system challenges our ego.
The problem is not that we have an ego. It is when we believe we are our beliefs and stories and operate from our ego; that makes us very personal and lose our objectivity. We get consumed by any challenge or crisis and become even more self-centred. The more self-absorbing we become, the more fearful and insular we become. We ride on a seesaw of highs and lows each time we succeed or fail. The more we identify ourselves to be one with the ego and external world, the more significant our ego becomes.
However, when we understand we are not our ego, we are much more than that. We can then distance ourselves from our thoughts by observing. The more we observe the freer we become from our ego and increase our ability to respond to the challenges thrown at us. This Ego distancing helps not only in freedom from our fears but also empowers us to think bigger and better for the larger benefit of the society. It enables us to see beyond the current crisis, and we become visionaries.
