MORE ON GETTING THE EGO OUT OF YOUR "I" - WHAT SAYING "I" SAYS ABOUT YOU!

That's the titled of a piece in Slate.com: "WHAT SAYING 'I' SAYS ABOUT YOU!"

In my FPL post, GETTING THE EGO OUT OF YOUR "I," I wrote about the problems identifying with one's ego causes. Well, according to a series of studies carried out at the University of Texas at Austin, this shows itself in measurable ways in our language. The studies found that insecure people use the pronoun "I" more than those who are confidant and assured; melancholy souls say it more than ebullient ones. And we use it more when we are suffering, self-conscious, or eager to please.

Why would this be so? How do these findings make sense? Well, you see, when you rely on your ego to solve self-esteem issues in adulthood, your self-esteem actually suffers. You see, the flow of energy in early childhood is of necessity towards "getting." Getting love, recognition, validation, support, etc., from its environment, mainly from the parents or adult caretakers. Thus, the child's verbal expressions very often start out with the phrase, "I want." But if the child is not getting enough from its environment, it starts using the ego, created in childhood by the child, to try and get more - through false emotions and masks, like pleasing or suffering.

In adulthood, the natural flow of energy is outward, expressing into the world, and at its fullest, the expression is of the Higher Self through the adult, so there's very little "I" involved. The feeling in a self-actualized adult is experienced more like a force, greater than "I," coming through the person. Love, creativity, joyfulness all flow outwardly.

So, folks, do your self-work, and deconstruct that identification with your ego, and practice, practice, practice not referring to your ego as "I." Eventually, you'll only be using that pronoun in the simple statement acknowledging your existence as part of All That Is, who once said: "I am that I am."