Pleasant greetings to you all.
This week's topic for the #queercoin weekly prompt is a very interesting one. Our focus is on Ego. I find this topic interesting because many people have a misconstrued interpretation of it and o ly a very few people actually know and understand what it means.
For a long time, I thought ego represented pride, arrogance and an inflated esteem of oneself but over time with some research, I discovered that ego when it is healthy, poses no threat rather it is more beneficial.
The branch of ego that is not good is unhealthy ego which stems from low self-worth and esteem, which will in turn make a person exhibit arrogance and pride because they don't want to be seen as being less than what they claim to be.
Ego is simply a person's sense of self-importance or self-esteem.
Personally, ego is multifaceted. I hinge my own definition on self value, self confidence,dignity and self identity.
Every human has this trait called ego. I feel it is an inborn thing that we all acquire from our ancestral genes and it is that factor that distinguishes us from animals.
Does ego support me?
This is a double edged sword question. I believe ego supports our existence as higher animals and the dominant force over all creation. Without a sense of ego, we would not be able to differentiate ourselves from animals because we would act and behave like them.
Ego is that quality that keeps you on par with your identity and worth. You know that you are not beneath anyone and no one is above you. We are all unique in our own diverse way.
This reminds me of the story about an eagle that lost its egg and the egg was found by a hen. This hen had also laid some eggs, so she added the egg she found to her own eggs and incubated them for 21 days.
Finally, the eggs were hatched. The baby eagle finding itself amongst chicks behaved like them. It didn't know that it was a strong bird that could soar higher than those chicks until one day, while foraging for food in dump sites like the other chicks, it sighted a majestic bird, soaring above them.
The baby eagle watched in awe as that bird up in the sky soared gracefully and a longing was built in his insides. The baby eagle returned home but it was never the same again. From the day it saw that bird up in the sky, he aimed to be up as well and soon he began testing his wings. He discovered that his wings had a broader span than that of his other family members.
He kept on trying to flap his wings and one day, when flapped until he began to ascend and that was how he flew away and never returned to the ground to scavenge for food.
The eagle identified himself as being a species meant for the sky and when he finally built enough momentum, he never went back to the ground to peck its beaks on sand anymore. This to me is ego at play.
On the flip side, an unhealthy ego does not support anyone; rather it causes many losses.
Importance
My ego is very important to me, not because I get a false sense of satisfaction from it but rather because it allows me to know what I can and cannot do and what I should or shouldn't allow into my space.
I recall an old movie tilted the prince and the pauper. The plot follows two men who were physically identical. One was a prince while the other was a poor village riffraff. They met by fate and decided to explore life incognito through a switch.
The prince became the poor guy while the poor guy became the prince. They agreed to this for some days and later switch back. They returned to their normal posts but something went wrong. The poor guy pretending to be the prince could not give a simple command for breakfast while the prince pretending to be the poor guy refused to take rubbish from other commoners who bullied him.
It didn't take long for their secret to be exposed because one had a healthy ego while the other did not even when he was in the palace filled with abundance.
Ego helps me set boundaries. A healthy ego allows me to be confident in myself even when I think I'm flawed. It allows me to express myself before others and helps me enjoy positive friendships because I'll treat my friends the way I treat myself.
Ego is not pride or boastfulness or arrogance. A healthy ego is the balance that we all need and this is done through conscious gratitude and dumping of entitlement mentality.
Thanks for reading.
Images are mine.