EGO AND IT’S RELATIONSHIP TO MENTAL HEALTH : MindsetOpediaDMHC Blogs

‘Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind.’ – Plato

Every individual has an ego. The ego may be defined in a variety of ways, but to put it simply, it is your sense of personal identity or feelings of self-importance. It assists you in identifying your 'uniqueness,' standing up for yourself, and putting ideas into action. It is, nevertheless, critical that you pay attention to how your ego influences your decisions, since it may have negative influences. Being conscious of your ego may help you improve your relationship with others as well as your ability to manage yourself. This in turn helps us become happier and healthier both mentally and physically.

The goal of our ego is to make us feel significant. It is necessary for its existence. Unfortunately, this translates to our ego fighting and defending itself. Although it may seem contradictory, the ego needs negative conditions in order to have something to do, worry about, or alter. Basically, when you’re happy and everything is perfect, our ego is on the lookout for a problem to cling to or a drama to create.

The ego is not oriented in the present. While it is true that only the present moment exists and that the past and future only exist in the mind, your ego wants you to think about them. This includes considering things that have gone wrong in the past or might go wrong in the future. Every time we take something personally, it's usually the work of our ego. For example, consider a time when someone was rude to us and we felt insulted or superior to them as a response, that was our ego talking.

When the ego starts taking control of our present moments that is when our ego is beginning to harm our mental health and us. There is nothing wrong with having an ego or feeling important, but the ego must be managed and regulated. The issues come when it influences your decision-making, your attitude, or when it makes you feel like a victim, an underdog, or superior to others in order to justify your actions. Most of the times ego comes between our relationships, work life balance even at times to the extent of processing our emotions and thus causing immense amount of stress. These situations make us more miserable. Our ego will fight, as it doesn’t want to be at peace. It needs an enemy, a situation or a problem to feel bigger or better than. This stops us from enjoying our life and accepting things as they are. However, we can learn to accept how things are by simply noticing when our ego is interfering and gently bringing it back into line.

It is crucial to recognise that our ego is only a part of us, just as our mind is too. Even if our subconscious makes decisions without us being aware, we are much more than our ego and mind. This awareness and understanding of our reality will allow us to be a lot happier and level-headed.

Now that we have understood how our ego can cause chaos and affect our mental health, let’s looks at some strategies, which can help us to tackle those difficult situations.

• Mediating and being mindful, this allows us to relax and calm our mind in difficult situations before taking rash decisions.

• Practising gratitude, helps us to maintain a positive mind-set when things don’t go our way and we just want to blame everyone and everything.

• Being in the now, allows us to focus on the present when our mind is in between the pull of past and future.

• To stop when something bad happens, taking a minute to ourselves helps us to process the situation rationally and logically without giving in to the ego.

Learning to let go of ego is something, which we keep listening to, but in reality ego is an important part of self. Thus instead of trying to let go we need to learn to regulate and manage it. However difficult it may seem, it is not impossible to execute with constant practice and regulation, as Plato said our mind is a powerful tool and we can alter our reality by changing our mind. Similarly, one can also maintain a steady & healthy relationship between their mental health and ego.

By, Ms. Angela Mathias

Council Member

WICCI-DMHC