Category Archives: Blog
Earth—God’s Only Destination for Us
Earth—God’s Only Destination for Us
I want to offer thanks to those who work in the aerospace industry—past, present, and future. Since the beginning of our entry into exploring the cosmos, you have been incredible servants. A service that has brought forth many advances which are being used on planet Earth to better the lives of its inhabitants. Also, your efforts to explore the cosmos are part of the journey to further witness God’s majesty and the life existent in different realms. We will have you to thank when one day we make contact with that life and the birth of an interstellar community is brought forth. We are not alone. We have never been alone. God is too great for it to be otherwise.
But, there is one area of concern that is truly a matter of life and death—ours and Earth’s—that involves the aerospace industry. During the past several years there have been fascinating stories about space technology and travel that ultimately have the goal of inhabiting another planet. Some of the justification for this involving the progressive destruction of our planet via greenhouse gases that are a byproduct of industries that exploit Earth for business, financial, and political gain. A destruction laying the groundwork for “why” we earthlings will need to relocate to another place, such as Mars. I will readily admit to ignorance about all of the details of this “plan.” But, in spite of that, it strikes me as a rather ill-conceived plan. It took millions upon millions of years of this planet’s evolution and three million years of humankind’s evolution for this wonderful, beautiful earth, that was given to us by God, within the wisdom of the ages and evolution to be our home. The Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, that made it hospitable for us to enjoy and celebrate its nature and the opportunities we have to commune with it, using our senses and mind.
It seems incredibly arrogant, even with the brilliance of our science and scientists, to create technology that we can use to meet the intense evolutional demands of adapting to live in such an inhospitable environment, such as Mars. Dare I say, that one of the demands will involve our ceasing to be humans, as we know them, in order to attempt this “relocation.” To fashion a version of ourselves, intended to accelerate our ability to live in a very foreign and inhospitable environment. That is, to accelerate our evolution in ways that are out of alignment with our humanity and lead to the loss of it. Or, to transform Mars into a more hospitable environment. Even within a few 100,000 yrs. which is a blip on the time frame upon which evolution unfolds.
Earth is the place we are meant to be. A place with so much more potential to be the home we need it to be, in order to not just survive, but thrive and live into the near and distant future. Our free will is so much more about taking care of this home, than it is about finding a new one. If we fail in that undertaking, that will be the end of humanity. We are no more entitled to go on as a species, than any other life existent within the universe. If we fail to honor and protect the home we have been given. Earth is our only destination because that is what has been given to us by God, for the purpose of our existence. If we fail, it will not be the end of God or life that exists in other places. It has, is, and will continue to go on, just without us.
Earth was, is, and will be the only home for the form of life known as humankind, and all of its other living inhabitants. Those will never exist in another place beyond earth. This is where the sunrises begin and end. The waves ebb and flow. The birds chirp, coo, and caw. The flowers bloom and emit their fragrance. And on and on and on. The harmony of nature within our planet. All of that will never be known again if we allow earth to slowly, but ultimately die. Their presence and ours coming forth from evolution were meant for this place. We must abandon the illusion that there is an alternative. There is none. Earth is what we have been given. And it is our choice as to whether we will keep it.
Earth has been, is, and will be our only destination as it is within God’s plan. To think relocation is an option, gives some—the environmental terrorists—an out with which to exploit and abuse it. We must not let those with unhealthy ego energy, be it power, flexibility, or vulnerability related, rape and exploit the planet for their own near term, narrow and self-serving wants—not needs. To render a gift in which the air is unbreathable, the water is undrinkable, and the heat is unbearable. This is the gift from evolution we have been given and we are charged with acting as its stewards. We can either do that or the gift will be gone and so will we. We have been endowed with the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, to undertake that stewardship. The task of our stewardship includes dealing with those who would seek to dishonor and abuse our earthly home. The God within our being—the Love, Life, and Energy—must be brought to bear in this effort. God from without will not come forth to deal with those earthly environmental rapists and exploiters. If that were so, would things have gotten so dire as to threaten the existence of this wonderful, beautiful planet, with it being endangered and uninhabitable within the next 100 to 200 yrs. It is within our hearts, minds, and hands, to keep what was intended for us by God—Earth.
In peace and love,
Nick
Ego Stupidity-The ‘Oxygen’ COVID-19 Needs from Us to Survive
Ego Stupidity-The ‘Oxygen’ COVID-19 Needs from Us to Survive
We are living through the darkest time that any of us has known in our lifetime. A pandemic challenging our way of life and that of our children and grandchildren. Some may argue the Great Depression, Hitler and Nazism, and 9/11 were darker than the challenges of COVID-19. But there is something very different taking place now, contributing to our darkness, beyond the ravages of COVID-19, when compared to those monumental challenges of the past. Then, our country willingly and instinctively came forth together to defeat what was facing it at the time. Americans knew they were all in this together and it would take that realization to meet the challenge. A time to become “one” in order to meet and defeat the threat at hand. Whether it was working our way out of a Depression, destroying a dictatorial monster bent on taking away peoples’ freedom, or responding to the threat of terrorism on our shores. I remember that feeling in the aftermath of 9/11, and so do you.
Unfortunately, that selfless, do what’s best for America and Americans, hasn’t been aroused and is absent in many, in response to COVID-19. It has been replaced for many by a “me first” willingness to sacrifice the lives and health of so many of their fellow Americans. Social distancing and wearing a mask are just too big of an “ask” in order to protect others and themselves. An approach to citizenry that has contributed to the grotesque, unfathomable, and often preventable daily loss of life in our great country. Rivaling the loss of life that occurred on just one day—9/11/01. But, now every day is a repeat of that horrific day in the loss of humanity. And that doesn’t seem to matter for a whole lot of people. Why! Why, is the unconscionable acceptance of the loss of life and the destruction COVID-19 has brought forth, taking place? Why, are so many failing to act as their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, particularly health care workers and first responders? Why, is this happening in people who are as intelligent, and spiritual, and mentally stable, as everyone else?
The answers to these questions must be asked and answered, on behalf of those who have and are being lost to this scourge. This involves two influences that have given and are giving COVID-19 the “oxygen” it needs to survive. It is the combination of these influences that has resulted in a whole lot of senseless mismanagement, or what I refer to as ego stupidity. The first influence involves the role of social media in dispensing non-truths and lies about COVID-19, that’s doing its part to maintain the virus and help it to flourish. The explosion of social media platforms over the past 20 yrs. has led to the growth of “the empowerment of non-truth.” Under the cover of the First Amendment, social media platforms and opinion news programming, are less accountable for presenting and making distinctions between truth and faulty beliefs and half-truths about COVID-19. A lack of responsibility fueled by the fact there is a lot of money to be made in telling people what they want to hear and often less money in telling them what they need to hear—the unvarnished and vetted truth. Fiction and fantasy play better than reality for many people. People are “sold” what they want to see, hear, and believe which can be quite addictive.
An addiction to social media and opinion news reflected in the incredible number of hrs. people are willing to consume and “stay tuned” on their TVs and computers. Unfortunately, this addiction has found its way into the content involving COVID-19 and many of the mistruths being told about it. Often, including various forms of conspiracy theory in which people pay attention to half-truths while ignoring lies. One additional benefit of the addiction is that you don’t have to spend time getting to know the truths about COVID-19, you can just let others “find” it for you and you even allow them to do your thinking for you, though you often don’t realize that this is happening. Things like telling you it’s a hoax, or that it’s going away after the election, or that warm weather will make it disappear, or masks don’t work to limit the spread of COVID-19. Intelligent, spiritual, and mentally stable people have swallowed many of these non-truths and still are. They just don’t know they are because the whole process is quite insidious and as I said addictive.
Now to the second influence. Just as COVID-19 needs a host in the body, it also needs a host in the mind. And, that’s where the amount of balance and healthiness within our ego energy comes in. The amount of oxygen involving our ego, on which COVID-19 survives, is affected by the balance in one’s ego energy. When it’s balanced and healthy we deal with life in a healthily empowered, mentally flexible, appropriately vulnerable way to meet the challenges we are faced with, particularly COVID-19. We retain an awareness of our empowerment in so many aspects of life, even in the face of COVID-19. Wearing a mask represents empowerment, not disempowerment. We can listen with an open, but healthily skeptical mind, to scientists, medical practitioners, business, and political leaders whose life’s work is about serving everyone, not themselves, or the profits to be made from irresponsible (e.g. truth disconnected) social media or opinion news programming. People who have no interest or agenda, monetary or political, in spewing forth non-truths about COVID-19. Truth is and has always been their North Star. COVID-19 can find no host in our mind and the oxygen it needs when met with the disinfectant of truth. We can meet any of our fears with a realistic perspective built on truth to know that which must be feared about COVID-19. The common thread here is truth. It is the vaccine we must also take to kill what COVID-19 needs to survive and not be its mental host.
When one’s ego energy is less healthy and imbalanced we can find our way or be led to thinking and feeling we are disempowered, when we truly aren’t. We can find our way or be led to conspiracy theories connected to COVID-19, which can be eviscerated with the disinfectant of truth. If one is willing to drill down to the bedrock of truth that social media and opinion news often falls short of finding and feels no obligation to seek. We can find our way to feeling more threatened than we need to be, if we fail to meet COVID-19 with the truths we have and continue to learn about it, from the real experts, to keep each other safe. Ignorance of the truth from social media and unhealthy ego energy are the foundation of the ego stupidity with which many have been dealing with COVID-19. It is the oxygen on which COVID-19 depends and that has led to the deaths of more people than have died in each of our nation’s wars, and those yet to die from COVID-19. It remains for many to take two vaccines. One for their body and the other for their mind.
I end this blog with a quotation from Charles Dickens which appears in one of my previous blogs “Coronavirus—What Your Ego Needs from You.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
As we embrace wisdom, belief, light, and hope brought forth by the best of our humanity melded to our Divinity shining forth collectively in truth, it will be ‘the best of times’.
Stay safe and be well.
In peace and love,
Nick
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The Maturing of Diversity
The Maturing of Diversity
The past 50 years have seen tremendous social and political transformation in our country. A transformation involving significant changes in the diversity of family structures, significant changes for women and minorities involving participation in non-traditional careers and leadership positions, and significant changes involving representation in government for all members of our society at the local, state and national levels. We are also seeing greater openness, particularly taking place in our younger Americans in accepting all person’s rights to be accepted, regardless of their sexual orientation. This and more is what I refer to as the “maturing of diversity.” A maturity that is more accepting of all people regardless of who they are, where they come from, and what they look like. A maturity that respects the presence of God in all beings, even when that image looks different from us. A maturity from which we cannot turn away or turn back, because the truth of who we are, in our humanity and Divinity, is being progressively revealed to us.
The “Me Too” and “Black Lives Matter” movements are reflective of the continuation, not completion, of what was begun in the 1960’s involving the Women’s Liberation and Civil Rights Movements. Thanks to people like Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Smeal, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, John Lewis, and many more who courageously planted seeds in the face of a society that had not wholly signed off on needed social change. Social change that welcomed all to be equal participants in the ‘American Dream’, as we have moved forward in our greatness as a country. Far greater than the one which once was.
Many have welcomed this maturity but some have not. Those in the latter group are fearful of the changes brought forth by this transformation and long for the days when America was “great.” Failing to remember, or maybe not, that the earlier version of America, involved many things that were not so great. It wasn’t so unusual for many to think a woman’s place could only be in the home, women weren’t suitable by temperament to be political or business leaders or members of the military, blacks were intellectually inferior, blacks were lazy and didn’t want to work, and that gay men and women were mentally ill and morally bankrupt. Most of what was said and the stereotypes many people subscribed to have been debunked and the false version of social reality that they portrayed, even in those times.
Yet, some want to cling to them in fear of losing their social and cultural relevance. A person out of place and out of touch with the version of America becoming great now. A person who is in denial of this emerging greater version of America, built on the maturing of diversity. A person who must be helped to know that they have a place in this America, if they want it, not in an America that does not and can no longer exist. The tide of the maturing of diversity is rolling forward in the creation of a greater America, and they must have a place in it. Beyond the greatness of America being rooted in its freedom, is it being a place for all. That is the fulfillment of the foundation laid by our founding fathers. For that to cease would be the ending of the American dream that great Americans of all backgrounds have sought. That is what the inscription on the Statue of Liberty stands for. “They vs. Us” will never serve as the foundation for a greater America.
In peace and love,
Nick Martin
Racism and Ego Energy
Racism and Ego Energy
We are entering into one of those special moments in our country’s history. A moment not unlike the year 1968 in which I witnessed protests and social unrest on TV, taking place in the streets of Detroit, the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and the medal stand at the Mexico City Olympics. A moment in which unpleasant and inconvenient truths are no longer being suppressed as had been previously the case. Similar to those involving revelations about sexual misconduct on the part of some members of the Catholic clergy and sexual misconduct which precipitated the “Me Too” movement. This is a moment filled with lots of pain that is the price we must pay to get to a better place in our personal and collective evolution. A moment in which we should not forget what we have all seen and heard so vividly. Unfortunately, awakenings are often painful but necessary, because they involve transitioning from the darkness of ugly, hidden truths, from where we were, to the light of those same ugly truths, often originating within us, due to our human imperfection.
As we work our way to this better place, we must come to know where we were and why we were there, in order to get to this better place and build upon it, rather than regressing and falling back into old patterns. Regression that’s often undergirded by the ego energy that served as the foundation for racism in the hearts and minds of people, which bypassed their intelligence, spiritual essence, and emotional stability. Overt and covert racism that is part of the “abnormal-normal” formed from its roots in unhealthy ego energy. You don’t have to be stupid to be a racist. You don’t have to be lacking a spiritual essence to be a racist. You don’t have to be mentally unstable to be a racist. Most racists and the creators of racist discriminatory policies, are none of those things. But, what they do have is unhealthy ego energy to form the ugly thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that ultimately become institutionalized racism.
Our ego energy is the source of our racism when it’s distancing us from human and Divine Truth about our brothers and sisters. When we are wrestling with empowerment issues, it’s easy to find targets to disempower in the service of our empowerment, whether we attach it to race, religion, ethnicity, gender orientation, to name but a few. A false but effective means to experiencing empowerment over black people. When we are wrestling with our ability seek truth, it is easier to fashion false truths about black people in the service of owning the truth. A false but effective means to forming prejudicial and discriminatory thoughts and beliefs. When we are wrestling with vulnerability issues, it is easier to allow fear to creep into our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, about black people. A false means by which to protect ourselves from those with whom we need no more protection than anyone else.
The outer changes that must come about to remove institutionalized racist policies to be found in law enforcement, business, and health care, will need to be complemented by the inner changes that must take place in ourselves, because that is where they came from. We must disown the need to empower ourselves through “white privilege” at the cost to our black brothers and sisters. We must live the truth of our equality by being the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within our thoughts, words, and deeds, towards our black brothers and sisters, on all days and not just some. We must remove the fear of our black brothers and sisters, which has been outwardly manifested in the anger of discriminatory thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We are all better than that, because we have been endowed with God’s presence in all of us.
It will not be enough to undertake the revision and reform of racist policies, practices, and procedures. They didn’t write or were enacted in and of themselves. They were born in the hearts and minds of people. Some were fully aware, and others were not, of their implications. Failure to recognize the depth of their origins will only invite their reappearance in some new way, shape, or form. Such is the inventiveness and creativeness of those with darker motives, who only seek to serve themselves, no matter the cost to others. We must go deep into the roots of ourselves to understand the fuel, the energy, which serves as the source being drawn upon, individually and collectively, to foster racism, despite each of us being a child of God.
In peace and love,
Nick
Coronavirus—What Your Ego Needs from You
Coronavirus—What Your Ego Needs from You
The Coronavirus has triggered the setting off of an alarm by your ego whose sole purpose is to protect you and ensure your survival—both daily and mortal. In response to this alarm, people form anxiety, fear, and stress related thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which differ from person to person. Many are able to keep an even keel, draw upon experiences in dealing with previous challenges, maintain perspective despite the ambiguity of the crisis and when it will pass, and not be consumed with anxiety, fear, and stress symptoms. You are also able to temper your response to the alarm because your ego energy is healthy and balanced within its power, flexibility, and vulnerability. As daunting a challenge as the Coronavirus is, it has not weakened your sense of empowerment, weakened your ability to seek and work with the truth you need to know—good or bad, or weakened your ability to maintain a reality based, truth connected sense of your vulnerability. You will be called to service for those I am about to describe, by being the Love, Light, and Energy—God Is, in your service to them.
For many and particularly those who are more vulnerable due to their medical, financial, and work related circumstances the alarm is likely to be fostering more intense anxiety, fear, and stress symptoms. Part of this is due to the significant challenge that Coronavirus poses to your health and financial “safety.” And part of this is due to the nature of your ego energy and it’s response to the alarm. The first part is presently being addressed by the work of our scientific, medical, business, and leadership communities who will find the answers we need to defeat the Coronavirus. Their collective brilliance will make this happen, similar to the brilliance which was brought to bear in managing previous major existential threats such as the Great Depression and the menace of Hitler’s Third Reich.
The second part is your part and involves your anxiety, fear, and stress connected to the Coronavirus. There is something you need to know about ego and something your ego needs from you—that only you can give it! You need to know that even though your ego has a purpose—to keep you safe, protected, and alive—it has no awareness of that purpose or the alarm signal it’s sending to you. It doesn’t have the ability to tone it down or turn it off. Because it doesn’t have a brain, intellect, and mind to work with in order to do any of that. But you do, and you can give to your ego what it needs, as described in the following paragraphs, to meet the power, flexibility, and vulnerability needs in your ego energy, that are making this a particularly difficult time for you.
In regards to your ego power, it is likely that you have “forgotten” at least temporarily, the many, many things which are important and remain fully within your control. Things which are reflective of the significant empowerment that remains in your life. They may not all be what you want, like going to work on site, meeting up with friends, or going to sporting events. But, a lot of them are what you need. Simple, no cost, but important things like spending time with family and friends while using social distancing involving texting, calling, and skyping, exercising indoors or outdoors, playing with your animal friends, going for a ride in your car, going to a park, taking a walk in a forest, listening to great music, reading great literature, watching great TV programs, and so many, many more. Reminding yourself of them and doing them will tighten the connection to your empowerment and “tell” your ego that you’re not as disempowered as the Coronavirus and ego’s alarm has led you to think you are.
In regards to your ego flexibility, it is likely that you have gained some distance from truth and reality. That can happen when we are flooded by fear and anxiety. It can also happen when the people we rely upon for giving us the truth are failing to do so. This requires us to seek out the real truth tellers who are motivated by relevant experience and a genuine need to offer service unto us by giving us the truth—good or bad—that we need to know. We were designed by God via the wisdom of the ages and evolution to work best with truth and understanding. It doesn’t have to be positive—just real—so we can work better with what’s what. And, to use it as the guiding light for our healing and transformation. So, feed your ego energy as much truth and understanding about the Coronavirus as you can get from resources and people who are not compromised by a lack of experience or agendas in their service to us. And gain distance from those who want to tell you what you want to hear, rather than what you need to hear, as this false reassurance can only be a disservice to you.
In regards to your ego vulnerability, it is likely that you have mixed genuine health, work, and financially related concerns, we all share, with some magnification of them. This magnification is the result of fear and anxiety which often has a distorting and enlarging impact on the concerns we have. This is a time for our leaders to be true leaders and do what is necessary to address each of those concerns. That appears to be happening and you should remind yourself of that, so that message penetrates into your ego vulnerability to lessen it. But, you are the one who can “tell” your ego that you are less vulnerable than it is leading you to believe you are. You can do this by using the guidance of the truth tellers in the scientific and medical communities regarding social distancing and using appropriate, diligent hygienic practices, to reduce the likelihood of getting the Coronavirus. And by getting hard, factual information regarding strategies being developed by business and government to alleviate your financial and employment situation.
Also, remind yourself that we are each our brother’s and sister’s keepers, and you are surrounded by the Divinity in all of them, which will speak to your health, financial, and work-related concerns, as we walk this journey together—not alone. Each one of us is endowed with the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is. It is a common thread across all of us and the making of our Oneness and Unity. You are already seeing it come forth in the numerous stories of service that people are offering to each other, with many more to come. Coronavirus is no match for our Divinity and its reflection in our thoughts, words, and deeds for each other.
Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” As we embrace wisdom, belief, light, and hope brought forth by the best of our humanity melded to our Divinity shining forth collectively, it will be ‘the best of times’.
Stay safe and be well.
In peace and love,
Nick
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‘Fido’ and ‘Fluffy’—Opportunities to Be the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is
‘Fido’ and ‘Fluffy’—Opportunities to Be the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is
We are given so many opportunities to be the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within our life. Opportunities to be the unconditional, connective, unburdened, and unlimited love that is the essence of being the Love—God Is. Opportunities to recognize the presence of God in all life forms and to treat it with honor and respect, whatever form it takes, be it human, animal, plant, and others, that is the essence of being the Life—God Is. Opportunities to experience the healing and transformation that occurs when we connect to light and truth about God, ourselves, and all beings, which is the essence of being the Energy—God Is.
One of these, involves the opportunity to have a ‘Fido’ or ‘Fluffy’ or any other furry or not so furry friend to share our life with. These wonderful gifts serve us in so many ways. They give us a sense of comfort and companionship when licking our face, sitting on our lap, or climbing into our bed. They help us to laugh, distract us from our cares, or lighten our mood, when they play with us, others, or by themselves. They offer a sense of compassion when they come around us when sensing our distress or meeting our needs to feel protected. There are so many more experiences we can relate to in their service to us. A service that St. Francis of Assisi fully recognized in his communion with the animals and nature that surrounded him.
But, there is one more very important way they serve us and it is within the service we offer to them. They give us an opportunity to be the best version of ourselves. They give us an opportunity to experience the best version of life. They give us an opportunity to be in full contact with our spirituality and Divinity. It is within their presence and our service to them that we are given an opportunity to be the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is.
Remember, the love that surmounted any of the difficulties that caring for ‘Fido’ or ‘Fluffy’ asked of you within meeting their needs. Remember, the feeling of connection as they progressively earned a place in your heart and your family. Remember, when you were willing to do anything or go anywhere to help them when they weren’t well. They took us beyond the limitations of human love which is often conditional, often non-connective to some, often experienced as burdened, and often containing limits as to how much can be offered to those being loved.
Remember, when they taught you the presence of God in all of life and not just humans. Remember, when you came to honor, respect, and treat them and all life equally. Remember when you began to recognize that their purpose was beyond your own desires for entertainment when witnessing their confinement in cages and zoos that violate their instincts and the millions of years of evolution that shaped those instincts. They took us beyond the human limitations of respecting life according to some position on the species continuum and arbitrarily conferring status within the human species based on a person’s race, religion, gender orientation, or ethnicity.
Remember, how you grew as a person, as the Godness in your being, made contact with the Godness in their being. Two souls no longer separated by designation of being human and animal. A healing and transformation brought forth when being able to look beyond the human realm to see life in its greatest Divine truth—as One and in Unity. They took us beyond the darkness and ignorance of our earlier thoughts of separation from them to the brilliant light of truth connecting us to all beings.
I am so thankful to all of the animal members of our family that graced me with their presence and service over the years. And in giving me the opportunity to learn of the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within myself and my service to them. To Soot, Zeke, Bailey, Spanky, Pepper, Elvis, Ginny, Cotton, Caspar, Zack, Shiloh, Emma, Patrick, Diego, Mila, Bradley, Daisy, Madison, Madeline, and Regis, you all remain forever in my heart for what you gave to me and in helping me to experience the best of what life and I have to offer, within my service to you.
In peace and love,
Nick
“Rocky Mountain High”—with Accompaniment by God
“Rocky Mountain High”—with Accompaniment by God
I was listening to a CD the other day and heard the song “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver. An incredibly moving and spiritual song capturing the majesty of a particular region of our country and the transformation of a man as he was developing a deeper relationship with himself and life. I replayed the song several times taking in the beautiful mixture of sound, imagery, and thought that John had given to the world in this and all of his music. As I contemplated his contribution and service, I came to hear the song on a much deeper level that moved me to tears.
My initial listening to this work in the 1970’s included the enjoyment of the mixture I referred to earlier. However, it included the understanding that everything about the work was solely from John. He thought the thoughts, composed the words, played the guitar, and sang the words. That he did it all alone, so I thought. But he didn’t. Yes, he did all the things I just mentioned. However, he didn’t do it all alone. The roots serving as the source of the song were not of his making. Those roots were the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within his being. That he drew upon to create a song that celebrated life lovingly, with honor, and a grasp of its potential for transformation. In the absence of God’s presence there would have been no “Rocky Mountain High”, or “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, or “Poems, Prayers, and Promises”… I think he knew that.
The same goes for us whether our great works involve parenting our children, providing for our family, caring for our neighbor, protecting our environment, serving our animal friends and wildlife, and engaging in our life’s work. Our great works cannot be known without the accompaniment of God. We supply the incredible thoughts, words, and deeds which allow for their making. But, the source of their creation and manifestation is the God within our being. It is the source of our being able to “write and perform” our own version of “Rocky Mountain High” within our life.
Oftentimes, people see this differently and claim their own great works as solely of their own making. This is certainly a reasonable and understandable conclusion if you think you were the only person “in the room” when it was being created and manifested. However, this impression of the absence of any accompaniment by God is often the product of seeing life through the prism of one’s ego energy, particularly if one is experiencing what I refer to in my work as higher ego power energy. A prism often creating distance from human and Divine Truth. A prism often distorting one’s ability to recognize the actual reality that is playing out in their life. A prism that often leads one to insist that one’s great works are solely of their own making. When necessary, it is the removal of this prism with ego medicine that will heal this energy and allow us to be tightly connected to human and Divine Truth, allow us to witness the actual human and Divine Reality playing out within us and before us, and allow us to realize how much we are being accompanied by God in our great works.
In peace and love,
Nick
10 Ego Insights to Promote Our Human and Spiritual Wellness
10 Ego Insights to Promote Our Human and Spiritual Wellness
If you’ve had a psychology class or read a book that touched on ego in likelihood you got a very limited, very superficial, and very incomplete description that weakens your ability to understand the extremely important influence that ego is having on your life, humanly and spiritually. By the way that’s not the fault of those courses or teachers because they were only intended to give us a basic understanding of ego, not everything. Unfortunately, if we get the impression that we pretty much know everything there is to know about ego, we are actually missing a great deal about it and what it’s doing to our life. So, knowing something about ego is as good as knowing nothing about ego, because what we know can be misleading. It can lead us to minimize the effect ego is having on our life, and cause us to miss the destructive impact that ego can be having on it. Weakening our ability to understand ourselves, each other, and God. Even though we are normal, intelligent, and spiritual beings, our ego energy can be leading us towards a lesser version of ourselves and a lesser version of life. Consequently the more we know about ego and our ego energy, the more we can remove ourselves from the ignorance and darkness that empowers ego and upon which it thrives, to the truth and light upon which we can thrive.
- Everyone has an Ego.
There are over 7 billion people on the planet and every one of us has an ego. Just as we all have a face, a brain, and a heart, we also have an ego. We often don’t realize this due to our ignorance of what it truly is.
- Ego is an Energy.
Ego is an energy and its main purpose is to protect us, keep us safe, and promote our survival—our daily and human survival. It is serving as the roots for how we will try to survive in this life, and hopefully serve us in living a fulfilling and meaningful life. Unfortunately, this effort to survive can happen in some very different and often stupid ways for different people. This requires having a deep and diverse understanding of ego and the energy that it is. Failing to do this will keep us as ignorant of it now, as we were 3,000 years ago and will be 3,000 years into the future. This will prevent any real transformation of personal and collective human and spiritual consciousness on our planet.
- Ego Energy is Diverse and comprised of Power, Flexibility, and Vulnerability.
Power involves the degree to which we are willing to exert influence in our life. Flexibility involves the degree we are willing to seek the truth we do not know and discard the false truths we do know. Vulnerability involves our ability to accept and work with our weaknesses and an imperfect world. Each of these components are brought to bear as we meet the challenges of life including relationships, achieving our potential and knowing our life’s purpose, change, adversity, stress, conflict, and living genuine happiness.
- Ego Energy can become unhealthy and imbalanced by life circumstances—not by you, ego, or God.
The experience of living too much or too little ego power, flexibility, and vulnerability are brought about by what life has brought to our door in the form of harmful, destructive, or dysfunctional people we have encountered, traumatic events, impoverished environmental circumstances, or inherited/acquired illnesses, diseases, or disorders which have brought our daily survival into question.
- Ego Energy is the main source of the stupidity happening in our life—not our intellect, not mental illness, and not an absence of spirituality.
We have enough intellectual ability to think intelligently and adaptively about the challenges taking place in our life when unhealthy ego energy isn’t getting in the way. The overwhelming majority of us are not being afflicted by the type of mental illness that would compromise our ability to think rationally, intelligently, and adaptively in response to what is taking place in our life. It is not due to an absence of spirituality because the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, is always within us, though unhealthy ego energy can cause us to gain some distance from it. When we attribute any of the stupidity happening in our life or those of others, to intellectual limitations, mental illness, or the absence of spirituality, we are getting caught up in misleading explanations and missing the boat. Shooting groups of people becomes a moment of empowerment for those feeling disempowered or an opportunity to express frustration in a world that is not complying with the shooter’s version of truth.
- Ego Energy shapes what can become our “abnormal-normal”, which is the distorted ways of looking at ourselves, our life, our thoughts, our feelings, and our behaviors.
Ego energy is like a prism or filter through which we are looking at things and the nature of the power, flexibility, and vulnerability making up the prism defines it and the distortions we can get in how we see ourselves, our life, our thoughts, our feelings, and our behaviors, which reflect ego stupidity. It is abnormal, because what we are thinking, feeling, or doing is unhealthy, even though others can often see it. It is normal, because it becomes so typical of what we think, feel, or do that we often make it out to be normal. By the way taking a pill will not alter or remove the prism—you do!
- Ego Energy thrives on consistency, familiarity, predictability, and the known, which keeps us stuck in it even when we are realizing the things we are thinking, feeling, or doing are wrong.
So we can be stuck in unhealthy ego energy which entraps us in spending our life surviving rather than living. Particularly, if we don’t know what to do about it. Or, we can be experiencing healthy ego energy (which also likes consistency, familiarity…) which allows us to spend much of our life living and not just surviving.
- Ego Energy can impact our spiritual wellness—weakening our ability to be the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is.
We are always spiritual because we could not exist in the absence of God’s presence in our being. But, we can gain distance from our spirituality and not be spiritually well due to unhealthy ego energy, particularly when we embrace ego illusions of separation, inequality, and unworthiness. Unhealthy ego energy weakens our ability to be the unconditional, connective, unburdened, and unlimited love that God Is. It weakens our ability to recognize and honor the presence of God in all life forms, be they human, animal, plant, insect, etc. It weakens our ability to undergo the natural healing and transformation that we were designed to experience when being the Energy—God Is. It also weakens our ability to embrace the Divine Gifts we have been given of our life, our ability to create the life in which we are living, our eternal life, and God’s presence within us, every step of our life. Unhealthy, imbalanced ego energy gets in the way of all of that and undermines our spiritual wellness.
- Ego Energy is mainly healed by You—not Ego, not God, and not Life.
Ego can’t do it, because it doesn’t have an awareness of what it is and what it’s doing to your life, as it doesn’t have an intellect or a capacity for intentionality. God does not work to directly intervene in fixing our ego energy even though we can make efforts to draw upon our spiritual resources to manifest more of the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, including the use of prayer, meditation, and service to others. Life can bring a powerful transformational event or person into our lives that can shift our ego energy in a positive direction. But, generally they have to be pretty powerful and you have to wait for them to come if they ever do. For example, a near death experience causing someone to gain greater perspective and altering or removing the prism I was talking about earlier. You are the one who can heal your ego energy where needed with the information I can share with you in my programs and books. Because, you are the only one living you!
- Ego Energy can be healed by you with the use of Ego Medicine
This involves guidance from us that is contained in each of our books towards knowing: 1) What ego is and what it isn’t, 2) Tuning into your ego energy, and 3) Replacing ego rooted non-reality based thoughts with those which are reality based.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
God—The Love Guiding Us To Be Truly Loving
God—The Love Guiding Us To Be Truly Loving
The greatest of human experiences are those times when we are being truly loving. Times when we are manifesting a connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited love with whatever we are doing and whoever we are doing it with or for. A loving embrace of life happening when we are caring for our children and loved ones, tending a garden, writing inspiring music or stories, teaching skills that lead to a better life for others, putting ourselves in harm’s way to protect others, and a million other ways we can be truly loving. The reservoir of Love serving as the source of this loving comes from within, but it is not of our making, as much as we may want to think or believe that. It is the Love—God Is, which we can choose to manifest in any way possible as it has no boundaries that can be placed upon it. It is the foundation for what become the loving thoughts, words, feelings, and actions we use to express this Love.
This Love is connective because there can be no walls or barriers that stand in the way of its connection to ourselves or others. But, we can create walls made from ego illusions such as separation, unworthiness, and inequality that make it appear as though this Love is absent or beyond our reach. This Love is unconditional as there are no reasons for which it can be offered to some and not others. Differences of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, income level, intellectual capability, emotional stability, physical ability, and species have no place in this Love. This Love is unburdened as there is no challenge it cannot meet in order that this Love can be offered to or received by those in its need. This Love is unlimited and inexhaustible as it has no end and in its giving more is created to be given.
Some may disagree with the notion that we are not the source of our loving thoughts, words, and deeds. It is certainly an understandable belief that we ourselves created the manifestations of love and must be considered the source of them, rather than God. Unfortunately, this understanding becomes a misunderstanding when we believe that we can stand alone or apart from God. It also misses the intense intimacy we share with God and how much our life is being impacted by the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, whether we know it or not. Every breath we take, image we see, song that fills our heart, taste we enjoy, and so on is the culmination of the Love—God Is, built upon the wisdom of the ages. God has made all of this possible including our capacity to be truly loving—we are not its source. The really good news is that this Love is available to everyone and at all times with which to fashion a greater life than what we have known. We can only become distant from it when our ego energy is creating distance from it.
When we default into believing we are the source of our loving rather than God we have opened the door to many distortions in how we know and show our love as well as our ability to accept it from others. Our loving thoughts, words, and deeds become fashioned through the prism of our ego energy. Our ego power, flexibility, and vulnerability when imbalanced can promote distortions of love that distance us from being the Love—God Is and can be quite twisted. We can think it is Ok to love some and not others. We can think we only have so much love to give. We can think we don’t deserve to be loved. We can think we must earn love. We can think others must earn our love. We can think that showing love is weakness. We can think that needing love is weakness. The Love—God Is, would not have us thinking any of this!
Our recognition that God is the source of our being truly loving not only has profound implications for ourselves but also for how we see our neighbors. We can see not only the humanity of their loving thoughts, words, and deeds—but also the Divinity. We can hear the voice of God speaking to us through them telling us about the Oneness and Unity we share with them. We can put aside the distraction of any human differences to see more deeply who they are and who we are. It is within this awareness that we can combine our human resources to address any of the challenges we face individually and collectively, when being truly loving. The Love—God Is, within our being will defeat any fear or weakness within ourselves or others as their source is only within our humanity. They cannot withstand the connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited love we can meet them with when we are being truly loving of ourselves and others while being the Love—God Is.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
Love Our Neighbor—There is No Choice!
Love Our Neighbor—There is No Choice!
One of the most important messages we receive as children and throughout our lifetime is to love our neighbor. This message has been sent throughout the world for thousands of years. It is a central tenet of every religion or belief system seeking to promote connection to each other and God. A foundation for human and spiritual wellness and a game plan for the best life has to offer. This is a particularly important message in a world where technology and telecommunications has brought us into a more immediate and intimate level of contact with our neighbors, near and far, in ways that did not exist only a generation ago. Distance, geography, and primitive technology no longer stand in the way of seeing our neighbor or they us—for better or worse. Yet, despite its simplicity, familiarity, and significance, it is a message that is often not fully embraced at all times, in all places, and with all people. This message often gets diluted, lost, or forgotten when we encounter the differences that exist between we and our neighbors. Then loving our neighbor starts to become a choice for many, if it isn’t one we are already making
The weakening, meaninglessness, and absence of the message begins with the notion that loving our neighbor is a choice. It is a choice we may or may not realize we are making—but many are often making it. This choice is being made when we start to look negatively upon neighbors who differ from us in race, gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious affiliation, income level, intellectual ability, physical ability, or emotional stability. Placing conditions or requirements on which neighbors we will love or how much is a violation of the simple, brilliant, and beautiful message to love our neighbor—all of them and at all times! When we fail to do so, we don’t understand the message at all and believing we do is only an illusion. Also, loving our neighbor isn’t something we can only think. It’s not just a good and wholesome idea. We must live it for the message to be real and not just an illusion in which we are only fooling ourselves.
Some may think that loving our neighbor is a choice and even resent the suggestion that there can be no choice. It only becomes a choice when we are losing contact with our Divinity and falling deeply into our humanity. A humanity which often embraces the notion that we are not our brother’s and sister’s keepers and do not need to serve them in their time of need. A humanity which allows us to stop loving our neighbor based on any of the differences they may have from our likeness. A humanity that allows fear and anger, rather than love, to guide one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior toward our neighbor, particularly when they are being a lesser version of themselves.
Loving our neighbor becomes a choice when ego illusions of separation, inequality, and unworthiness become the filters through which we view our neighbors and loving them becomes more conditional. Loving our neighbor becomes attached to prerequisites involving the right beliefs and values, the right demographics, or the right physical, mental, or emotional characteristics. The notion of loving our neighbor is lost and the message has been rendered meaningless when choice has become a part of it. The Love—God Is, which exists within our Divinity is connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited. It involves a Divine standard rather than a human one to be the source of one’s guidance. It does not allow for a choice where none can exist to be the essence of this love. Only an imbalanced ego in which power, flexibility, or vulnerability issues are impacting on our human energy and humanity can bring this about—making love a choice.
The good news is we can become more connected to our Divinity, if need be. When we awaken to the illusion of separation operating in our life and realize we are truly connected to all others the wall of separation can come down. When we awaken to the illusion of inequality operating in our life and realize we can only be equal and that any differences are not the making of deficiency or inequality, this wall can come down. When we awaken to the illusion of unworthiness operating in our life and realize that we and others can only be worthy because God dwells within each of us, this wall can come down. The removal of each of these illusions will lead to the removal of the notion that loving our neighbor is a choice. With the true meaning of the message “love our neighbor” being fully known and lived.
Again, the Love—God Is, is connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited. When we sign on to loving our neighbor that is the love we are being. That is the love in which there can be no choice. That is the love in which we would want no choice. It is the love in which ego illusions involving separation, inequality, and unworthiness, attached to ourselves, others, or God can’t and don’t exist. Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” To the degree that loving our neighbor is a choice, we must seek to be that change.
Love Our Neighbor—There is No Choice!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
Fred’s Mom was Right—Look for the Helpers!
Fred’s Mom was Right—Look for the Helpers!
We are living through some challenging times as most of you know. The idea that terrible things could never happen “here” is now a relatively quaint notion which has been replaced by the awareness that soft targets—schools, places of worship, stores, concerts, sporting events, and shopping malls—can in an instant become scenes of unspeakable tragedy. That visit came recently to one of our Pittsburgh neighborhoods, the one Fred Rogers knew so well, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. Eleven souls were lost to a man whose life spiraled downward to the point that death and destruction came to give some meaning and purpose to his life. A theme often present in others killing in places such as Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, Littleton, and unfortunately many more. The new normal is that it can happen here and we are challenged to heal from our pain. While, our leaders and legislators fail to address issues that make these tragedies far more likely and common here than in other parts of the world.
As Fred’s mom taught him, in times of great difficulty look for the helpers. The helpers are the healers. They cannot undo the incredible physical and emotional pain we have experienced. They cannot undo the loss of what could have been and should have been. They cannot make sensible what was senseless. That is not their purpose in our time of need. The helpers are those serving us while being the Love—God Is. This love is connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited. It is far stronger than hate and its “father”—fear. This love will return us to living as we come to terms with man’s inhumanity to man. This love is our rock as we move beyond the darkness into the light.
We can find the helpers anywhere and anytime. They come in many different forms. The first place is within. We have all been endowed with the Love—God Is. This is why we are capable of doing incredible things and why when people come together they do some really incredible things. We were designed by the wisdom of the ages—three million years—to heal from within and be our healer. Tools such as sharing our thoughts and feelings, crying, laughing when we’re ready, meditating, and exercising are just some of the ways that resonate with the design woven into our being so that we can love, help, and heal ourselves.
The helpers are also found in all of the people surrounding us who are manifesting the Love—God Is. This love being reflected in their listening, kind words, compassion, and warm embraces. We must open our door to these helpers as the connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited love they are extending to us resonates with our Divinity. Seeing the face of God in their reaching out to us allows us to reach inward and recognize the God which dwells within. This recognition helps us to know that we never walk alone on our life’s path even in the darkest of times and can surmount them with the Love—God Is.
Our helpers can also be found in those we have never met. But, who gave something to the world born of their being the Love—God Is. Their gifts may have been musical, artistic, literary, religious, athletic, scientific, or any other creation that resonates with our humanity and Divinity. Touching us in a way that inspires us to love, help, and heal ourselves. Each allowing us to experience a greater sense of connection to ourselves and others—humanly and spiritually.
The helpers can be found in nature’s gifts. Each created by the Love—God Is. Each showing us the breadth of love which surrounds us, waiting to be held to their bosom. Each speaking messages to us about the beauty, meaning, and purpose which remains as we walk along the healing path. Chirping birds, fragrant flowers, serene beaches, gentile rainfall, dog licks, cat cuddles, sunrises and sunsets, majestic mountain views, and tranquil forests are just a few of the messengers of love, awaiting the opportunity to be our helpers.
Ironically, those who perpetrated mass violence were surrounded by many helpers. They either could not recognize them or chose not to reach out to them. They had gained tremendous distance from the Love—God Is within others. Divisive rhetoric certainly did not help them to do either. It was present in the healers who served the killer at Allegheny General Hospital while working to save his life. The Love—God Is was present in all of the mass killers though they had gained an incredible amount of distance from it, which is what happens when one’s ego energy is significantly imbalanced, and life can only be understood in inhuman terms devoid of any connection to one’s humanity, spirituality, and that of others.
Yes, love is stronger than hate and fear because it connects us to all of our helpers and all of who we are—much stronger!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Truth—So Near Yet So Far Away
Truth—So Near Yet So Far Away
There is nothing more important to our wellness and survival than truth—human and Divine. Despite its role in helping us to be grounded in reality and all of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits that come with being connected to it, most of us live at some distance from it. A distance that often is reflected in difficult relationships with people and particularly loved ones, inability to achieve and know our life’s purpose, difficulty growing our mind with truth, and inability to experience genuine happiness, to name but a few of the important life areas impacted by truth and its absence. We often settle for less rather than more out of ourselves and life. Our distance from truth often prevents us from fully realizing the Divine Gifts we have all received. The Gifts of our life, creating our life, eternal life, and God within us.
Often, it is much easier to gravitate to faulty beliefs, values, and prejudices masquerading for truth. Sort of like taking a short-cut in living our lives that doesn’t really exist. Sometimes out of ignorance because we don’t know where to look or find it. Sometimes out of comfort so we don’t have to deal with the near term pain it can bring which can ultimately bring forth joy and happiness as we meet the truth we needed to know. Sometimes out of convenience which allows us to live in the illusion of happiness and a better life built upon lies and untruths we tell ourselves and others. This isn’t pleasant, but the truth seldom is until it has become part of us that we are connected to. So near yet so far away until we have chosen to awaken to it—within us.
Some of the best examples of those living at a distance from human and Divine Truth are: dictators, narcissists, victims, martyrs, racists, authoritarians, sexists, ethno-centrists, religious extremists, political extremists, sadists, bullies, perfectionists, sociopaths, hedonists, and cultists. There are plenty more but we think you get the idea. Lots of ego rooted issues going on in which inequality, separation, and unworthiness form the foundation of the truth they know or want to know. We may not be one of them, but we live with many of them, and they do have a destructive impact upon our lives, as well as their own, and will continue to do so unless they and we build a stronger bridge to truth. The truth that lies within and which we can only access for ourselves.
We are intelligent, spiritual beings capable of becoming better human beings! The elusiveness of truth has nothing to do with an absence of intelligence or the absence of the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within our being. It has everything to do with our ego energy and how it works, despite our intellect, our Divinity, and our desire to seek truth, to block us from looking inward. So close that we can even “touch it” by thinking it, but cannot be it. It is when the “volume” on the power, flexibility, or vulnerability of our ego energy is getting higher or lower that we gain distance from truth, reality, and ourselves. It is when our ego energy is imbalanced that ego illusions lead us to find truth in inequality rather than equality between ourselves and other forms of life, particularly fellow humans. It is when our ego energy is imbalanced that ego illusions lead us to find separation and difference rather than connection and commonality with the people we encounter or those from other places. It is when our ego energy is imbalanced that ego illusions lead us to find unworthiness within ourselves or others rather than worthiness which is our birthright as each of us is a child of God. Too much or too little ego power, flexibility, and vulnerability will get us to any of those distant places from truth—human and Divine.
The task of finding and being connected to our truth is often easier said than done. Which is why many look to others to find it for them or are pacified by faulty beliefs, values, attitudes, and prejudices being passed off as truth. Unless, we have a “map” to better understand ego, our own ego energy, and how to heal it from within, we will remain at a distance from truth—human and Divine. The bridge to our truth is not built upon ego-related ideas alone. They are only a launching point and guide for where we must look to find the truth from within. It is these ideas that we must connect to our experiences involving key life areas such as relationships, self-acceptance, achievement, happiness, and others, that only we can fully know. To gain a semblance of the volume existent in our ego power, flexibility, and vulnerability, if we want to see it. To see more of the change we must undertake from within to get to our truth, if we want to know it. To narrow the distance between truth and ourselves, if we want to live it. The more we see of ourselves, the narrower the distance between ourselves and truth—human and Divine.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, when we are able to shine light upon ourselves where there has been darkness, we can see the lies we have been telling to ourselves and others, often unrecognized, but nonetheless impactful upon our distance from truth. Light and truth are intimately linked and once they are revealed there can be no distance between ourselves and our truth—human and Divine.
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Ego Energy #63—The Best of Our Humanity
The Best of Our Humanity
Our Ego Energy is a mixture of three components—Power, Flexibility, and Vulnerability. The degree to which each is present or absent will impact the way we go about living our daily lives. In Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self, we describe 125 different ego energies in an effort to help people find the ego energy they are living and determine if and where they need to undertake healing of their ego energy. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, it is our intension to foster an awareness of all ego energies so we can ultimately live the great life we are meant to live! A life in which we are living the best of our humanity in concert with our Divinity.
This article is the one of a series to help you become more attuned to ego energy in the broader sense and to help you determine whether you or someone you know is displaying this ego energy. We believe that recognizing one’s ego energy places us an important step closer to understanding ourselves and each other which is integral to any healing which can occur—individually and societally—as well humanly and spiritually.
Ego Energy 63: Balanced Power—Balanced Flexibility—Balanced Vulnerability
This is the “ideal” ego energy. The one in which we are striking the healthiest balance within our ego’s power, flexibility, and vulnerability. A person with this ego energy has a healthy ability to interact with people. While being a follower or leader, depending on which is being called upon in a particular work, play, or social setting. We can approach relationships with loved ones in an interdependent manner. There are times when we can lean upon loved ones and lovingly depend on them for what they can offer to us or we can give to them. While, also being able to go it alone when necessary, without becoming distant or alienated from our loved ones. We can also love ourselves in healthy ways that allow us to love all others—known and unknown—as we manifest the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within our being.
We seek to achieve with all of the talents we have been given while undertaking our work with a sense of passion rather than burden. Within this effort we can see what we have learned along the journey and have been made better by it. We have no need to compare our journey with others, as such comparisons are meaningless. We have no need to build shrines to ourselves reflective of accomplishments for others to see. The service we are here to provide—human and Divine—has come into focus and we are realizing our life’s purpose.
The growth within the quality of our mind toward truth is healthy. It is within the flexibility of our ego energy that we can add, change, or remove thoughts, beliefs, values, and prejudices which belong or don’t belong there. The arbiter is always the willingness to be connected to truth rather than faulty beliefs. No matter how painful the reckoning may be. As we will ultimately be set free to live the greatest of lives by truth—human and Divine.
Our dealings with the inevitable personal, situational, societal, and technological changes that life will bring are in keeping with the understanding that life cannot and will not stand still. As the energy upon which it rests is dynamic rather than static. We work to manage change rather than avoiding, rejecting, or seeking to undo it. We embrace, honor, and follow worthy traditions which have wisdom to teach and serve us, while discarding faulty traditions that have been shown to be destructive and which were created to exploit people, wildlife, and the environment. We can also instigate needed change to address that which should not remain stagnant and unhealthy in our personal lives.
We can work with the adversity that comes in the form of failures, losses, and mistakes. Often, rooted in the imperfect nature of ourselves, others, and life which we have come to accept and learn from, rather than to avoid or reject. This work involves the ability to seek and understand relevant causes, owning what we must own in contributing to problems, and developing solutions which allow us to effectively solve problems and not just dealing with symptoms. The ultimate lesson having been learned that management of the problem is more important than the problem itself.
It is within this ego energy that we have the greatest opportunity to experience the abundance of genuine happiness that is available to us. We don’t accept substitutes for it in the form of pseudo-happiness. While understanding its ingredients include being at peace with oneself, others, and the world, being motivated by love rather than fear in one’s efforts, living in the present rather than being chained to the past or consumed with the future, and so on. Also, the gift of our other emotions including sadness, anger, fear, and guilt are playing their part in helping us to know when we are gaining distance from happiness or the direction we may need to take to get there.
The stressors and stress we encounter (e.g. financial, work, health, family, relationships, etc.) are being kept in perspective by our ability to understand and manage them. We react, rather than overreact or underreact, to their size, frequency, or seriousness, in ways that allow us to manage them, rather than letting them manage us and our lives. This includes the use of proven strategies, often rooted in the “wisdom of the ages” and the divine nature of our design such as healthy eating, exercise, rest, and recreation patterns, meditation, yoga, mindfulness practice, and cognitive therapy. Rather than quick fixes or approaches that often become unhealthy addictions including alcohol, drugs, over the counter medications, food, and cyber-related consumption.
Our management of conflict is healthy. We seek to use it as a tool by which to teach and learn from others. The difference between constructive and destructive conflict is well known and we disengage from the latter. Its signs include personal attacks and insults where nothing can be taught or learned, the focus of the issue/conflict/argument has been lost, and the emphasis is on “winning” while some degree of the relationship—if not all of it—has been lost. We can agree to disagree when no meeting of the minds can occur and remain friendly, if not friends. Never losing sight of the importance of cultivating or maintaining the relationship. EMNS-0/None.
If the description from this article resonates for you or someone you know, you may want to read further in Ego Therapy as well as our other books EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self and The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life. All three books are available on the Shop page Here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
Ego Energy #6—Sound Familiar?
Ego Energy #6—Sound Familiar?
Our Ego Energy is a mixture of three components—Power, Flexibility, and Vulnerability. The degree to which each is present or absent will impact the way we go about living our daily lives. In Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self, we describe 125 different ego energies in an effort to help people find the ego energy they are living and determine if and where they need to undertake healing of their ego energy. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, it is our intention to foster an awareness of all ego energies so that we can ultimately live the great life we are meant to live! A life in which we are living the best of our humanity in concert with our Divinity.
This blog continues a series intended to help you become more attuned to ego energy in the broader sense and to help you determine specifically whether you or someone you know is displaying this ego energy. We believe that recognizing one’s ego energy places us an important step closer to understanding ourselves and each other which is integral to any healing which can occur—individually and societally. Ego Energy—6 is presented while describing how it is impacting the lives of those who are experiencing it, which may be you or someone you know.
Ego Energy 6: Low Power—High Normal Flexibility—High Vulnerability
This person has a very low need to exert influence within social interactions while allowing others to make the decisions. Within close relationships, she is primarily dependent and looks to her partner to make most of the decisions, particularly the important ones. Her self-esteem level is very low and she has difficulty liking and loving herself. She has low expectations and needs for achievement and will underachieve relative to her potential. She fears failure and success and tempers her aspirations in order to avoid them. The combination of her low power and high vulnerability levels contributes to a low degree of motivation to achieve.
Her ability to grow the quality of her mind is poor. She lacks respect for her own thoughts and allows others to impact her thoughts too easily. She is open to making changes in her thinking while placing a stronger emphasis on the thinking of others to do so. It would not be difficult to change this person’s mind as she is very gullible. Her ability to filter out bad from good information is weak. Her ability to determine who are the right and wrong people to listen to is also weak as she can be influenced by anyone. Some of this difficulty is due to the presence of too much emotion linked to her high vulnerability causing her to feel weak and insecure leading to lots of self-doubts.
Her ability to cope with important life changes is poor as she is emotionally consumed by them and listens too often to the wrong people giving her bad input. This often leads to denial or passive acceptance of change while failing to work with it. Her ability to cope with adversity is poor. She has difficulty taking control, may assume too much of the responsibility for having caused the problem(s) and often becomes consumed by her emotions within these situations. So, she often thinks more with her emotions than her intellect, even though it may be quite good.
This person often experiences anxiety and depression. When stressed by general or specific stressors, she readily enters the “fight or flight” mode and stays there longer than is actually necessary, having high-stress sensitivity. She becomes involved in a lower number of conflicts while trying to avoid them at all costs. When they occur, she is primarily on the receiving end, and the emotional impact is intense, causing her to be consumed by anxiety. Her conflict management is poor. Her ego management will involve significantly increasing her ego power, some decrease of her ego flexibility, and significantly decreasing her ego vulnerability. EMNS–8/High.
If the description from this excerpt resonates for you or someone you know, you may want to read further in Ego Therapy as well as our other books EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self and The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life. All three books are available on the Shop page Here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
Ego—Our Survival Energy
Ego—Our Survival Energy
There has been much written about ego over the years by many intelligent, well-educated and well-intended people. Most of what has been said casts ego in a dark and negative light. It is often presented as the part of us which can only lead us into no good and becoming a lesser, if not worst, version of ourselves. A part that can only lead us toward making bad choices, being with the wrong people and for some in the spiritual community—rejecting God. There is some truth to all of this because whenever our ego energy is imbalanced in its power, flexibility, or vulnerability, bad things and suffering often do occur in our lives. We can think of many examples of unpleasant or destructive things which happen to oneself or others when ego energy is unhealthy.
But surprisingly and ironically all of that is about trying to promote our daily and mortal survival, which most would generally agree is a good thing. Our ego is “trying” to help us survive in ways that often result in some stupid, crazy or dysfunctional ways that we come up with, but it is still about survival. However, there is one important distinction. We—not ego—make the choices in the ways we are surviving and whether we are going to merely exist or fully live. That is where ego’s purpose ends and we begin. And one of the really big choices we must make is seeing the ego energy that is shaping who we are being. You are the real difference between a life of just existing, and often suffering, and one of truly living. And whether you get the best out of what you and life have to offer.
The good news about ego is that it can promote some really healthy survival called living when it is in balance. It can play a role in promoting healthy thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiology we can use in our daily life while experiencing a wonderful life journey. Relationships are enhanced, achievement is optimized, minds are enriched, change is understood, failure is conquered, genuine happiness is recognized, stress is eliminated, and conflict is resolved when ego energy is healthy and doing its thing. All of this is happening in our daily lives when we are truly living and healthy ego energy contributes to making this possible.
Beyond the service to our humanity and life which ego can bring forth when it is healthy, there is the impact on our spirituality and Divinity. Spiritual writers and speakers have often castigated ego by describing it as a force that can only work against our spirituality and relationship with God. This can appear to be occurring when our ego energy is imbalanced and people think it is acting with an intention and purpose that it actually doesn’t possess—we do. People with higher ego power may indulge in illusions in which they believe there is no God, there is no need for God in their life, or that they are greater than God. People with lower ego flexibility may embrace extremist religious views which espouse intolerant and rejecting views of “non-believers.” In neither case did ego play a direct role in forming these thoughts. Because ego doesn’t have an intellect, it doesn’t have an intentional capacity, and it doesn’t have an awareness of God. It is the thinker of the above mentioned thoughts, not ego, who owns them and who is opposing God, even though they often don’t realize it. The extremist isn’t serving God, though they often think they are, they are serving themselves!
What ego can “do” when it is healthy and balanced is allow for the doors to our spirituality and Divinity to open wide. So we can become whole within our humanity and Divinity. A wholeness in which illusions of inequality, unworthiness, and separation no longer serve to close doors to our spirituality and Divinity, keeping us confined to the “little picture” of life and ourselves. A wholeness in which we can fully embrace the Gifts of Life, Creating Our Life, Eternal Life and God Within which we have been given. A wholeness in which we are being the Love, Life and Energy—God Is, within our daily life.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
The 3 Components of Our Ego Energy
The 3 Components of Our Ego Energy
Our ego energy has a tremendous and consistent impact upon our daily lives. Whether we are involved with people at work or play, dealing with loved ones, working to achieve, coping with stress or trying to experience happiness, ego is putting its stamp on how well this is occurring. Unfortunately, the ego and our ego energy remains a hidden entity despite its constant presence in our lives. The ego does not seek to hide from us because it lacks an intellect, the capacity for intentionality and a conscious awareness of what it is. It remains hidden due to a lack of understanding of it and significant underestimation on our part of its actual impact upon our lives.
One of the most important insights to obtain, in order to shine greater light on ego and our ego energy involves the diversity of this energy. We often think about ego as only having a “power” component. This is true. Ego plays a significant role in how much control or influence we need to exert in what is taking place in our life, including the situations mentioned earlier. However, ego also involves flexibility and vulnerability, which are components of our ego energy. Ego flexibility impacts the flexibility of our mind and how well we are able to seek out truth and be connected to reality rather than being locked into faulty beliefs, values, attitudes and prejudices which diminish the quality of our lives. When ego flexibility is unhealthy and too low or too high, it can weaken our willingness and ability to seek truth and be connected to reality. Ego vulnerability impacts how well we can work with and accept our human weaknesses and imperfection as we manage the challenges of our daily life. When ego vulnerability is too low or too high we have difficulty recognizing, accepting and working with our limitations serving to diminish the quality of our lives and often the people who surround us.
It is the combination of our power, flexibility, and vulnerability that defines one’s unique ego energy and what we are bringing into important daily life experiences. When our ego components are healthy and in balance in their amount of power, flexibility, and vulnerability we are able to become the best version of ourselves and experience the best of what life has to offer in our daily lives. There is also a bonus because healthy ego energy helps to open wide the doors to our spirituality and the recognition of our Divinity. We can experience the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, within ourselves and others. Also, the Great Gifts of our life, our ability to create the life in which we are living, our eternal life, and God’s presence within ourselves can be fully recognized and appreciated. Ego related issues involving lower or higher power, flexibility, or vulnerability no longer keep us living in the “little picture” of life and ourselves.
For those of us who may need to adjust the “volume” on their power, flexibility, or vulnerability there are tools available on our website for undertaking ego therapy while using ego medicine and focused ego meditations that can target the specific ego components you believe you need to work on. Shop page here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
“Mutually Assured Survival”—A Policy We Can All Live With
“Mutually Assured Survival”—A Policy We Can All Live With
Those of us who are children of the 50’s and 60’s can remember the chant, “Give Peace a Chance!” A response to the mounting casualties with the eventual loss of over 58,000 young American lives, physical disability due to war related injuries and exposure to Agent Orange, and the psychological maiming of many others who came home only to continue fighting the Vietnam War in the form of PTSD. Unfortunately, it took far too long for this call to be heard as it was drowned out by the message that we were there to stop the spread of communism put forth by those in power—Democrat and Republican. Those were different times then, when you didn’t question leaders. Be they within the government, military, police or church—they knew better or so we thought. We can hear the Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth” playing in the background.
As you know we have entered into some particularly challenging times. Unlike any we have seen as a world community. We have outgrown our ability to be insulated from the ravages of war, be it due to biological, cyber, or nuclear technology. One of the specific unique challenges involves the potential for permanent nuclear annihilation involving human and environmental devastation that is unimaginable. This is not hyperbole as the current nuclear bombs are 50 to 80 times more powerful than those which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We are now in the territory of risking the loss of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives in an instant. Things will never return to what they were in our lifetime, our children’s lifetimes, and our grandchildren’s lifetimes, in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. We are no longer out of the reach or potential reach of this weaponry. Time is shrinking between the two.
The fallout for the “winner” of a nuclear confrontation will be world-wide condemnation. A condemnation connected to the impact such a devastating event will have in the world. As the word containment cannot be applied to this devastation. The residual impact of nuclear radiation upon the environment—soil, water, plant life, animal life, is far reaching and permanent. Equally significant, this condemnation will be rooted in the notion that there was a better way. A better way rooted in a policy of “Mutually Assured Survival” to replace the current one of “Mutually Assured Destruction” by which peace is “guaranteed” via ratcheting up the threat we can pose to each other/enemies.
We have been paying close attention to what has been happening as many of you have. The seemingly senseless build-up of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is to ensure the life of the current regime. To us it sounds paranoic, for them it’s deeply rooted in self-preservation and survival. The collective ego energy for the North Korean populace propagandized by their leadership is intensely focused upon meeting this need. For them it is life or death. Irrespective of how irrational it and the means to achieving it may appear to us. Why not fashion diplomacy and policy rooted in the goal of mutually assured survival—both near and long term? An approach in this particular case abetted and brokered by China, whom the North Koreans do trust, who have a significant vested interest in the maintenance of stability within the Korean Peninsula. This policy can serve as the foundation for progressive, deescalating, matching steps backing off the threats we pose to each other’s survival. Sound naïve? Well the alternative appears to be a race toward insanity. Sound weak? Take a look at the words of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who understood the power and strength of working with the best of our humanity and Divinity in resolving conflict. Sound too simplistic? It’s amazing how often obvious solutions to conflict are missed when poor/faulty/absent communication exists between the parties involved in a conflict.
It may not be as catchy as give peace a chance, but “Mutually Assured Survival” is an idea whose time has come in a world facing the challenges of nuclear, biological and cyber weaponry proliferation.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Ego Energy #120—Sound Familiar?
Our Ego Energy is a mixture of three components—Power, Flexibility, and Vulnerability. The degree to which each is present or absent will impact the way we go about living our daily lives. In Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self, we describe 125 different ego energies in an effort to help people find the ego energy they are living and determine if and where they need to undertake healing of their ego energy. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, it is our intension to foster an awareness of all ego energies so that we can ultimately live the great life we are meant to live! A life in which we are living the best of our humanity in concert with our Divinity.
This article is the beginning of a series to help you become more attuned to ego energy in the broader sense and to help you determine whether you or someone you know is displaying this ego energy. We believe that recognizing one’s ego energy places us an important step closer to understanding ourselves and each other which is integral to any healing which can occur—individually and societally.
Ego Energy 120 is reflective of people possessing a mixture of high ego power, low-normal ego flexibility, and low ego vulnerability. They have intense needs for control, while having difficulty acquiring accurate thoughts/ beliefs about people, experiencing their emotions of anger, fear sadness or love, and recognizing their weaknesses. With several billion people living on the planet, it is very likely you have encountered people with this energy. In fact you may be one of them. This energy is discussed in the following excerpt from Ego Therapy in conjunction with 10 key life areas where it is impacting ourselves and others, often in unhealthy, destructive, yet unrecognized ways.
Ego Energy 120—High Ego Power—Low-Normal Ego Flexibility—Low Ego Vulnerability
This person has a very high need to exert control within work, play and social interactions while making great use of her ego space, almost exclusively. Within close relationships, she is independent. She possesses a high level of self- esteem, which is unhealthy. She has very high expectations and needs for achievement that are likely to be unrealistic, and which she often lacks the motivation to work toward unless she has found something that is particularly stimulating to her and for which she can feel passion.
Her ability to grow her mind is poor. She is limited in her openness to making changes and relies heavily on the use of internal input (working mainly with what she already knows). Her ability to filter out bad from good internal input is poor, as is her ability to distinguish between the right and wrong people to listen to. Her ability to deal with change in her life circumstances is poor. She may approach change in an aggressive manner, with a limited degree of flexibility and a lack of motivation, contributing to recklessness. Her ability to cope with adversity is poor. She has difficulty accepting her share of responsibility, her limited flexibility impedes her ability to respond optimally, and she lacks healthy emotion to help guide and motivate her when confronted with problems.
This person’s typical emotional experience is likely to involve pseudo happiness (when she feels everything and everyone is under her control) or an emotionally neutral quality in which she experiences an emotionless existence. Because of her very low stress sensitivity, she reacts with a limited degree of anger when confront with general or specific stressors. However, if she is experiencing secondary low ego vulnerability (detachment from one’s emotions due to earlier life trauma or victimization), she may display highly “angry” behaviors, thoughts, or physical symptoms. She becomes involved in a high number of ego collisions (conflicts), many of which she is not aware have occurred. She is more frequently on the initiating end of these collisions and their emotional impact upon her is of mild intensity, although she may display more significantly angry behaviors, thoughts, or physical symptoms if she has secondary low ego vulnerability. She may also seek out conflict for the excitement it can provide. Her conflict management is poor. Her ego management will involve significantly decreasing her ego power, some increasing of her ego flexibility and significantly increasing her ego vulnerability. EMNS—7/High. This represents a significant need to undertake ego therapy.
If the description from this excerpt resonates for you or someone you know, you may want to read further in Ego Therapy as well as our other books EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self and The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life. All three books are available on the Shop page Here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Is Lower Ego Vulnerability Damaging Your Relationships?
Lower ego vulnerability is reflected by an absence of awareness of one’s weaknesses and imperfections. This impacts relationships as this person is oblivious to how their weaknesses and imperfections are affecting others. They truly don’t recognize the small and large damage they are inflicting upon the relationship with their spouse/partner, children, parents, friends, and co-workers. In their case, “positive” emotional cues that most of us get—from love, anxiety, or anger—do not energize sensitivity to others and how they are treating them. They miss their callous thoughts, words, or deeds which often impact others, but they don’t realize this. Just as too much emotion can drown a relationship for those with higher ego vulnerability, too little emotion can starve one for those with lower ego vulnerability. Cold, aloof, and insensitive are often the words which describe them. The following excerpt from The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life presents the messages ego is telling the lower ego vulnerability person keeping them stuck in this energy. Messages they are listening to quite well but don’t realize.
Ego’s Voice
You have been led to live without emotion. Emotion is painful because it will let you know what you have done or not done and where you have failed. Without emotion, you need not know fear, guilt, or sadness. You need not know your earthly weaknesses, failures, imperfections, or vulnerabilities. Emotion is a doorway to them, so you must close it off to keep your distance from these enemies. The absence of emotion will make you invulnerable.
When desired, seek emotion only for your enjoyment. Let it be present in your thoughts, words, and deeds so you can be amused and entertained. Allow emotion to alleviate your boredom so you can know pleasure. Use it as a tool for this purpose. Allow it to be the maker of excitement or interest where none may exist. Make it a requirement of worthiness when forming your thoughts, words, or deeds. Abandon them when they do not provide the pleasure you desire and seek those that will.
Remain distant from those with whom you work or play. You need not experience emotion in your relationships with them, as it would expose your weakness and vulnerability to them. Both you and they are better off not knowing about your weaknesses. You must not let them know all of who you truly are. The absence of emotion will also make you less obligated to them. When necessary, use emotion to experience pleasure in your dealings with others. Be the maker of thoughts, words, or deeds that will bring forth feelings of love, anger, or fear from within yourself and others. Use them as tools for your amusement and to relieve your boredom.
You must be free of emotion in your dealings with those who are closest to you. They will reveal your weaknesses and betray you if you experience anger, sadness, or fear with them. In their absence you can keep others at a safe distance. Love and fear will bring you closer to others and lead you to need them. It will also make you obligated to them. You are safest and will survive best without these needs. Remain an island unto yourself. When necessary, bring emotion into the company of loved ones by allowing it to arouse, stimulate, and amuse you in the thoughts, words, and deeds you are choosing. Feel love, anger, or fear for the pleasure it can offer you. Emotion is safest when you are able to decide the terms of its expression. This will keep you safe and allow you to survive best.
Emotion will weaken you by forcing you to know yourself. It will lead you to see more of your vulnerability, which must remain hidden. In its absence, you can like yourself more, as you will not have to own or take responsibility for the darker parts of who you are. Allow them to remain strangers to you. Do not allow emotion to concern you with how others see you. In its absence, you can more easily, miss, ignore, or dismiss the weaknesses they are calling to your attention. Their thoughts and words can remain meaningless. This will keep you safe and help you to survive.
If the content from this blog resonates for you or someone you know, you may want to read further in The Two Voices Within (Chapter 6) to see if you/they are living any of the roles we discuss linked to lower ego vulnerability (Hedonist, Sociopath, Logician, Loner, Inattentive Person, or Sadist). It is when living these roles, some or most of the time, that we are damaging relationships with others and ourselves. Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring your lower ego vulnerability into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 10 and 16) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7). All three books are available on the Shop page Here.
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Is Higher Ego Vulnerability Damaging Your Relationships?
Higher ego vulnerability impacts one’s sense of vulnerability within relationships—be they with family, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. These interpersonal experiences are opportunities within which our weaknesses and imperfections—real or imagined—can be revealed to others. When ego vulnerability is higher, relationships become “dangerous” and we can become distant or defensive in our efforts to manage them. Either way, relationships weaken as they begin to be filtered through one’s vulnerability impacting the rationality of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This distortion occurs when too much emotion—anxiety or anger—is at work within our relationship experiences. The following excerpt from The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life presents the messages ego is telling the higher ego vulnerability person, keeping them stuck in this energy. Messages they are listening to quite well but don’t realize.
Ego’s Voice
I have led you to all of your fear, which is the foundation upon which many of your thoughts, words, deeds, and physical symptoms have been built. Fear is present within your earthly life and has found its way into many of your relationships and activities. Your fear leads you to seek to gain distance from the imperfection and weakness within you and surrounding you. Fear is your friend, and you must cling tightly to it. Its purpose is to serve as a warning of all things large and small, from within and without, that may threaten your survival. This fear keeps you protected and can ensure your survival.
You must be wary of those who surround you in your earthly life. You must keep them at a distance from your weaknesses and imperfection, just as you strive to do for yourself. Defer to their thoughts, words, and deeds so your weaknesses and imperfection will remain hidden. When necessary, reveal yourself only after putting great effort into hiding what is vulnerable within you. Always remain suspicious of others for their efforts to find weakness and imperfection within you. Do not let your guard down, as they seek to weaken you with any evidence of vulnerability you have shown them.
You must be fearful in your relationships with those who are closest to you. This fear will keep you wary of any distancing that is occurring between you and them. Fear will let you know they are leaving you or that you are leaving them, prompting you to find the source of this distance. Fear will energize thoughts, words, and deeds you must use to narrow this distance, protecting you from the loss of these relationships.
Fear must also be present within your relationship with yourself. It will help you to rid yourself of your weakness and imperfection, so you will be able to like and love yourself more, and so others will like and love you more. When vulnerable, you cannot gain acceptance from yourself and others. It makes you unsafe and unprotected, endangering your survival. Fear is the friend you must use to vanquish this enemy. Let it be your sword.
If the content from this blog resonates you may want to read further in The Two Voices Within (Chapter 5) to see if you are living any of the roles we discuss linked to higher ego vulnerability energy (Perfectionist, Overachiever, High Maintenance Partner, Stressed Out Person, Overly Self-Critical Person, Clean Freak, Traumatized Person, or Order Freak). It is when living these roles, some or most of the time, that we are damaging relationships with others and ourselves. Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring your higher ego vulnerability energy into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 9 and 15) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7). All three books are available on the Shop page Here.
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Is Higher Ego Flexibility Damaging Your Relationships?
Higher ego flexibility impacts one’s presence within relationships serving to weaken them. These people show much more respect for the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings of others and much less respect for their own. People can easily change their mind, even about important things. Often they seek the truth they believe to exist in others while failing to look within to find their own truth—humanly and spiritually. There is a hollow quality to their relationships in which they follow the lead of others, often blindly. Those with whom they are involved can sense this intuitively, if not consciously, which contributes to a reduced level of respect for the higher ego flexibility person. Unfortunately, this increases the potential for being manipulated, exploited, or abused by others as they often come under their “thought control” and have difficulty defending and asserting their own thoughts. The following excerpt from The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life presents the messages ego is telling the higher ego flexibility person, keeping them stuck in this energy. Messages they are listening to quite well but don’t realize.
Ego’s Voice
You are to believe what others believe, think what they need you to think, and know the truth resides in others, from whom you must learn it. You must always question yourself and never question others. They will lead you to the truth that you cannot find within yourself. Their truth must become your truth. They possess greater ideas, knowledge, and beliefs which will not fail you. You can only fail by questioning them, which would endanger you and threaten your survival. You must stand firmly on their foundation and not your own. Theirs is built of stone and yours of sand. You are lost without their truth and can only know yourself through them. You must reside in the safety of their thoughts, as they define you and everything. They are your guides for how to best know, live, and survive in this world. Thus, you are safest when living in their world. You must lose yourself in order to survive.
When necessary, you must help other lost people to know their truth. They are also toiling in darkness. You must help them to see the light that others are showing you enlightening them on any and all earthly matters. The people you have come to trust know best and others must come to know what they know. Their light shines brightest and others will feel safest when they know their light. You will feel safest when others know their light. This affirms the truth upon which your guides stand. You must also view their convictions as a reflection of the truth upon which they–and you—stand. Conviction validates their truth for yourself and others. Those with lesser conviction are weaker, and they are only standing upon faulty thinking and beliefs. You must not listen to them.
You must, therefore, listen weakly to yourself and be suspicious of your own thoughts. You must not concern yourself with exploring what may be new, different, or unfamiliar in your own thoughts. You must keep such thoughts at a distance, as the truth does not reside within you. You are safest when thinking in the realm of what others know or want you to know. Their thoughts, words, and deeds must become yours. You are unified when you enter and become a part of their world, and you are protected within this unity.
You must listen intensely to those who are closest to you in order to gain their wisdom. Find only truth in their thoughts and words, and do not question them, as this would lead you astray and into darkness. Follow them so you can be close to them. This is when you are being the most loving. If you followed yourself, you would become separated and lost from them. Allow them to change you as needed, another way of showing your love for them and gaining their love in return. Your close relationships will survive best when you become most like them and least like yourself. Find yourself in your partner or other close loved ones.
You can love yourself most when embracing the thoughts of others while disowning your own. It is within the superiority of their thoughts that you can think well of yourself. The weakness and inferiority of your own thoughts would only cause you to think less of yourself—and potentially hate yourself. You must embrace others by adopting their thoughts in order to love yourself. Loving others more and yourself less in this way will ensure your daily safety and survival. Then you will pose no danger to yourself.
If the content from this blog resonates you may want to read further in The Two Voices Within (Chapter 4) to see if you are living any of the roles we discuss linked to higher ego flexibility energy (Child, Cultist, Loyalist, Unloved, Silent, or Puppet). It is when living these role some or most of the time that we are damaging relationships with others and ourselves. Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring your higher ego flexibility energy into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 8 and 14) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7). All three books in our trilogy are available as e-books on the Shop page here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Is Lower Ego Flexibility Damaging Your Relationships?
Lower ego flexibility within one’s ego energy often has a destructive impact upon close relationships—particularly closer ones involving family and friends. These are the people who live 24/7 with them and get no break from them. A person with lower ego flexibility thinks in a rigid, inflexible manner. They believe they “own” the truth and often perceive their task as getting others to know their truth and live by it. They show disrespect for the different thinking of others—publically and privately—while often equating difference with deficiency. This disrespect often creates distance in relationships in which people feel unable to speak their mind around this person. Unless they want to engage in conflict which is often destructive rather than constructive as the lower ego flexibility person doesn’t believe they have anything to learn from others. Particularly, if they are of a different race, gender, religious affiliation, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age-group. The only way to be “close” to the lower ego flexibility person is to think like them which is the making of a phony, disingenuous relationship. The following excerpt from The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life presents the messages ego is telling the lower ego flexibility person, keeping them stuck in this energy. Messages they are listening to quite well but don’t realize it.
Ego’ Voice
You must believe absolutely in what you believe, think what you need to think, and know the truth for yourself and everyone. Your thinking is beyond questioning; you need never reflect upon it or seek the opinions of others. Your ideas, knowledge, attitudes, and interpretations are much closer to the truth. Neither you nor anyone else can question them. To question your thoughts would endanger you and threaten your survival. They are your foundation, and you stand firmly upon them. You are lost without them and would be unknown to yourself. You must reside in the safety of your thoughts, as they define you and everything. They are your guide as to how best to know, live, and survive in the world. You feel safest when others are also living according to your thoughts. You must find others who already live in this world—your world—and convert others who do not.
When necessary, you must help others to know the truth. You must always question their thinking and beliefs. They are the ones toiling in darkness, and you must help them to see the light. This light, your light, helps in resolving any and all earthly matters. You know best, and others must come to know what you know. Your light shines brightest, and you feel safest when others are coming to know your light. This affirms the truth upon which you stand. You must also view your conviction as a reflection of the truth upon which you stand. Your conviction validates your truth for yourself and others. Those with less conviction are weaker and are only standing upon belief.
You must listen weakly to others and to be suspicious of their thoughts. New, different, or unfamiliar thoughts are likely to weaken you, so you must keep them at a distance. You are safest when thinking within the realm of what you know or want to know. You must also help others to think like you in their thoughts, words, and deeds. A world in which others are united with you is a safer world for you to live in. You are protected within this unity.
You must not listen to those who are closest to you, even if their intentions are good. They may lead you astray and cause you to lose yourself. You must ask them to find themselves within your thoughts, as they reflect truth. This is how you best show them love, and you feel closest to them and safest in their company offering them this guidance. You must also ask them not to change after adopting your thoughts, as that would violate the relationship, which can only survive in commonality, agreement, and unity.
You can love yourself most when embracing your thoughts and less when embracing those others. The superiority of your thoughts leads you to think well of yourself. The weakness and inferiority of the thoughts of others causes you to think less of them and to hate them if need be. You must love yourself more and others less, as this will ensure your daily safety and survival. Others can join you if they are willing to embrace your thoughts. You can love them as yourself, as they pose no danger to you.
If the content from this blog resonates you may want to read further in The Two Voices Within (Chapter 3) to see if you are living any of the roles we discuss linked to lower ego flexibility energy (Authoritarian, Racist, Religious Extremist, Love Elitist, Sexist, Ethnocentrist, Political Extremist, or Paranoid Person). It is when living these roles some or most of the time that we are damaging relationships with others and ourselves. Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring your lower ego flexibility into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 6 and 12) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7). All three books in our trilogy are available as e-books on the Shop page here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Is Lower Ego Power Damaging Your Relationships?
Today’s focus is on lower ego power energy and its impact on relationships. Lower ego power weakens one’s ability to participate fully and meaningfully in significant relationships occurring in our lives—spouse/partner, parents, children, siblings, friends and ourselves. It often promotes relationships in which we are passive, submissive, and overly dependent upon others. The needs of others become far more important than our own. This sows the seeds for being manipulated, exploited, and even abused which often becomes normalized due to the frequency of its occurrence—something to be expected and deserved. The relationship with ourselves—the most important relationship—becomes poor and we often come to dislike and can even hate ourselves. Interestingly, this has nothing to do with how intelligent, attractive or wealthy you are as lower ego power can find its way into anyone’s life. Relationships with authoritarian/overly protective parents or persons are often the beginning point which often involves lots of destructive criticism that you “repeat” to yourself. You learn not to believe in or trust yourself. In response the “voice” of ego begins to speak loudly—in the name of your survival—within the “weak” thoughts, words, feelings and behaviors manifested within relationships. The following excerpt from The Two Voices Within presents the messages ego is telling the person with lower ego power, keeping them stuck in this ego energy. Messages they are listening to quite well but don’t realize it.
Ego’s Voice
It is within the absence of your power that you must submit, follow, or know less than others. You must also know that listening to others is more important than listening to yourself. Listening to others, thinking what they think, and doing what they do is the means to your strength. You do not know more or better than they do. Their way is right and doesn’t need to be challenged or changed—yours does. You must mistreat yourself when necessary, knowing that you are less worthy than others; underestimate yourself; insist on doing things the way that other people want to do them; and lack confidence.
Stay dependent upon those who are closest to you, be they your spouse, partner, or close friend. You cannot know as much as they do or influence them. Fail to communicate your thoughts, always give in to their desires, and do not expect compassion from them. They need to do most of the thinking so you can be protected in their wisdom. You must become as much like your partner as possible in your approach to life, so you can be a better person—your partner.
Love others more than you can love yourself, knowing that you are less important and less significant than others. You feel safest when you are meeting the needs of others while neglecting your own. Loving others, rather than loving yourself, is the means to your daily survival, making you feel safe, protected, and able to survive. Expect less love from others and see yourself as less deserving of this love. In doing this, you are not taking the love that others want, so you can feel safe. By empowering others with your love, you can experience the power of feeling safe. However, your love is less significant, as it is coming from you. For this reason, you know your love as less desirable for others, questioning its value for them and their need for you.
If the content from this excerpt resonates you may want to read further in The Two Voices Within (Chapter 2) to see if you are living any of the roles we discuss linked to lower ego power energy (Victim, Martyr, Dependent, Depressive, Underachiever, Conformist, or Masochist). It is when living these roles some or most of the time that we are damaging relationships with others and ourselves. Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring your lower ego power into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 5 and 11) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7). All three works in our trilogy are available as e-books on the Shop page here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
Is Higher Ego Power Damaging Your Relationships?
Lots of research has shown that a very important influence on wellness and the quality of our lives involves the relationships we experience. Relationships with our parents, children, spouse/partner, friends, co-workers, as well as with ourselves are a barometer as to how well things are going in our life –or not. For those with higher ego power the control of others is at the center of their relationships. They enjoy controlling the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of others, particularly those closest to them. Frequently, they use manipulation, exploitation, and abuse—physical or psychological—to establish this control. Their needs come first and they bring self-absorption and narcissism into their relationships, which is destructive to them. The foundation for their higher ego power often involves exposure to permissive parenting where little if any effort was put into promoting self-control and recognizing the needs of others leading to an intense sense of entitlement. They learned that the world revolves around them and often it has.
One’s ego energy has an important say within the thoughts, words, feelings, and behaviors that occur within all relationships. The more our ego energy is imbalanced, the greater the chance that what we manifest with them is unhelpful and unhealthy—but often we don’t know it. The worse things are going in your relationships—which a person often fails to recognize—the “louder” is ego’s voice in your being. The following is an excerpt from The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life in which the impact of ego’s voice and higher ego power on relationships is presented.
Ego’s Voice
Through your power, I am helping you to dominate, control, or know more than others. You are to believe that listening to others is not necessary; that listening to others, thinking what they think, or doing what they do would be weakness, an experience that is foreign to you. Others cannot really know more than you do. Your way is right and doesn’t need to be challenged or changed—their does. Changing yourself would be foolishness and a sign of weakness. You can mistreat people when necessary, know that you are better than them, underestimate them where needed, insist on doing things the best or right way – which is your way – and be overly confident.
You must stay independent from those who are closest to you, be they your spouse or partner, children, siblings, or parents. They cannot know as much as you do or influence you. That would be weakness. You must not communicate, compromise, or show compassion, since that would signal weakness to them. You need to do most of the thinking in the relationships with the people who are closest to you, so everyone can be protected by your wisdom. I help you to insist on your partner becoming as much like you as possible in his or her approach to things, so your partner can be a better person—you.
You are to love yourself more than anyone else, someone others can love even more than they love themselves, and someone who is more important than everyone else. Recognize that all criticism of you is destructive, only intended to weaken you. You must know that you are entitled to and deserve all of the love that others can give to you, love that you can use to further empower yourself.
If the content from this excerpt resonates, you can read further in The Two Voices Within to see if you are living any of the roles we discuss linked to higher ego power energy (Dictator, Rebel, Narcissist, Ultra-Competitor, Control Freak, Exploiter, Independent, or Bully). It is when we are living these roles some or most of the time that we are being most destructive to others and ultimately ourselves. Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring their higher ego power into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 6 and 12) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7). All three works in our trilogy are available as e-books on the Shop page here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Have You Met the Lesser Version of Yourself?
What an unpleasant and difficult question to ask ourselves. Partly due to its sensitive nature and partly due to the “distractions” of everyday life (work, family, bills, and so on) which keep us at a distance from answering this extremely important question. This is something we may get around to at a future time if we absolutely have to. Until then it remains filed away near the bottom of one’s “to do” list. Though ignored the answer to the question is having a significant impact upon your life. Even though you are a good, intelligent and well-meaning person which also weakens asking of the question. This answer is “weeding” its way into how you work and play with people, your closest relationships and ability to love yourself, achieve your potential and know your life’s purpose, grow your mind, experience happiness, and deal with the change, adversity, stressors, and conflict that life brings to your door. Ignoring this question often leads us to living a lesser version of ourselves and life. We settle for less than the great life we are meant to live. As Jesus said, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” We fail to choose ourselves when we fail to get to know all of ourselves.
Becoming a better person or the best version of ourselves is an indirect approach often intended to address the question which titles this blog. People often talk about being more open, honest, assertive, sensitive, friendly, responsible, trusting, trustworthy, considerate, mature, supportive, etc. Unfortunately, all too often this is like a New Year’s resolution where the intensions are good but a grasp of the challenges, issues, or influences connected to the resolution are ignored or lacking. Change—real, meaningful, permanent change—requires insight. Insight that allows us to see how, where, and why we are “getting it wrong” in any or many of the life areas mentioned earlier in order to get it right—becoming the best version of ourselves. This involves getting to know a person you don’t want to meet, but need to meet—the lesser version of yourself.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You the search for the lesser version of yourself and healing involves getting to know your ego energy. Particularly, whether you are experiencing lower or higher ego power, flexibility, or vulnerability. These energies often have us living a lesser and for some the worst version of ourselves. To help things along, our book The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life identifies roles we can be living in but fail to recognize which are reflective of this energy in which we are being a lesser version of ourselves. This is complemented by our works Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self in which a tremendous amount of light is cast upon ego so that you can heal it where needed and get on with being the best version of yourself and living the Great Life you were meant to live! Each book is available on the Shop page of our website by clicking here.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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What Ego Wants to Tell You
The following is an excerpt from our book The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life. This piece puts into words what ego would tell us if it had a literal voice. It is these words that can give us a better understanding of the profound energy lying at the core of our humanity, impacting our daily life, our ability to fully connect to our Divinity, and opportunity to live the great life we are meant to live.
Ego’s Voice
I am going to introduce myself to you today. I will be telling you “who” I am and “why” I am in your life. This will provide you with an opportunity to know yourself better than you have before. You will not be hearing about me from some expert, a person who has looked from the outside at me. I will take you inside so you can see me from within. You will be going to the source of your humanity. The view may not always be pleasant, but it is necessary for both of us.
I will begin by telling you that I am unaware of myself or any of the ways in which I am impacting your life. I do not have a consciousness of myself, but you can develop one of me. I have no clue about the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or physiology you are experiencing as a result of my energy. This differs from what some experts are suggesting, speaking of ego as if it were an entity conscious of itself, reflecting their ignorance of me. I cannot and do not impact you in any voluntary way. I profoundly impact you, but without volition. To intentionally impact a person requires an intellect which is something I do not have. But you do, and you can get to know me, even though I can never know you or myself.
Before going on, I want to ask you not to flatter yourself with the notion that you already know who I am. This notion is connected to the limited view that I am mainly responsible for the amount of power or influence you need to exert in your life. That is like looking at me with a microscope that has very low magnification. There is some truth to your notion of power. However, I am a more complex entity than that. My energy, your energy, is much more diverse, and I will be sharing that with you. Please do not feel insulted. That is not my intention, if I were able to form one. The most brilliant of minds, greatest of truth seekers, most eloquent of philosophers, and most notable of spiritual mentors have only been able to touch upon my essence. Often they have only been able to do so in peripheral, abstract, and general ways, allowing me to remain hidden from you despite my constant presence within you and your life.
If people truly knew me, or what to do with me, there would be a lot less suffering in people’s lives and the world. There would be a lot less concern about survival in the smallest and largest of matters; a lot less destruction to nature and the environment. With all of your intelligence and knowledge, would the supposedly most civilized of your countries be on the precipice of a nuclear holocaust? Would you really need to spend billions upon billions of dollars to protect people from each other – from cyber and biological terrorism – as you enter a new age? I am the true weapon of mass destruction, both personally and globally. I am the foundation and source upon which all of the others are built. This destruction is rooted in the individual and collective need for your survival. I am have been exerting this impact on you throughout history and will continue to until you get to know me and are able to transform my energy, your energy.
I remain hidden due to your ignorance and lack of awareness of me. The darkness in which I am kept allows and empowers me to impact you and everyone. I am not trying to hide from you, as I am without intention. I am just hidden due to your ignorance of me. Some have described me as only evil or as your enemy, due to their ignorance of me. I can be that, or even your devil, but I do not seek to be. Who am I, then, and what is my purpose? As I said, I am energy, a human energy. I work through the workshop of your mind, that place where ideas, beliefs, illusions, attitudes, prejudices, and knowledge are formed. I am not your mind, though many have referred to me as that. This just provides another example of their ignorance. I work within your mind as you draw upon my energy to shape your behaviors and feelings, and I even impact your body. I also foster the formation of your sense of self – your ego self, if you will. This is the “you” that you are or think you are, a culmination of all those things that I have impacted within the workshop of your mind. Your self is the manifestation of my energy, your energy.
You cannot change or remove any or all of your suffering from working on yourself alone, or by trying to change your mind alone. They are just places to begin to find me, places to get clues and cues. You can’t reach me from there. You must get to know me! And you much teach me, so I can stop teaching you. If you don’t, things will really never change – for you or for humanity. Not within the darkness of your ignorance of me. You will continue to reside in the darkness of your forbearers from thousands of years ago. Things haven’t changed very much; only the ways in which you try to survive and protect yourself from each other have shifted. You must get to know me so you can remove your darkness.
Some may ask, “Where did I come from and why did I come into being?” When you –meaning your very distant ancestors – left the literal or figurative Garden of Eden, in which some refer to as the Fall, I came into being. I came into being to help you survive, not only in the physical sense but in every sense in which you exist. This effort to survive manifests within many aspects of your life, and you reflect it in your thoughts, words, and deeds. My purpose is your survival and I protect you from anything and everything that threatens you. I protect you from people, be they friends, family, or strangers. I protect you from places, events, and experiences. When I am really getting out of balance, I am protecting you from yourself and life. This protection can be manifested in the thoughts you have, the words you use, the actions you take, the emotions you feel, and your bodily reactions. The more I am protecting you in these ways, the more you are out of balance.
You may be asking, “What do you mean by being out of balance?” As I said earlier, I am energy, an energy bounded by power, flexibility, and vulnerability. The power within this energy impacts the amount of influence or force you exert in the name of your survival. You live this force in your words, ideas, actions, and emotions. Some of you have a great deal of this power, while many others have very little. You will be hearing more about each of these situations. The flexibility of your energy impacts how flexible you are in your approach to seeking truth and securing your survival. This includes how open and varied the actions and ideas are that you will use in the “challenges” to your survival that come from everyday life. Some of you are rigid and locked into the only actions and ideas that you have known thus far, while some of you are open to anything and everything that is available to you. You will be hearing more about each of these circumstances. The vulnerability of your energy impacts how intensely you experience your imperfection and need to survive. You can know this vulnerability most readily by the amount of fear or anger you are feeling. This fear and anger can also be seen in your words, actions, and body. Some of you are consumed with your imperfection and survival, while others are oblivious to them. You will be hearing more about each of these. It is the power, flexibility, and vulnerability within your energy that shapes the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiology you are using to ensure your survival.
Some may ask, “How did I become this energy within your life?” I did not bring you to this energy. What has transpired within your life has done so. The energy I am and you are was “chosen” by life in the form of any number of unpredictable biological, social, or environmental influences that have brought your daily and mortal survival into question. Brought forth from all manner of relationships, events, injuries, circumstances, and diseases that have worn upon you. You aren’t responsible for their appearance at your life’s door. In this sense, you are ultimately innocent and your life is quite fragile. This speaks to my intense efforts to protect you and ensure your survival.
You may ask, “Why am I telling you all of this?” If I had an intention and intellect, I would tell you that I do not seek to be your enemy, as others have told you. Even though I have been destructive in the name of your survival, and have caused you great suffering as others have told you, I can be your friend. It is time for your ignorance of me to end. I can be your friend, but I don’t know how to do that. I do know that you cannot destroy me. You cannot dissolve, disown, or defeat me because I am energy, and you don’t need to. I have love within the essence of my energy and I need you to transform it – my energy, your energy – to be your friend.
To learn more about ego’s impact upon your life you can obtain a free E-Book of The Two Voices Within by joining our mailing list. Please send your request to spiritualawakening777@comcast.net .
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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From Challenged to Fully Enabled
We have all had the opportunity to witness and be inspired by stories of people encountering significant personal challenges in their lives and came to overcome them. Some were born with a disability impacting their ability to see, hear, attend, read or learn. Some encountered life events which tore them apart physically or emotionally due to neglect, abuse or a life-threatening event. Some have succumbed to the influence of drugs or alcohol to create distance from their pain and misery. Many eventually responded to these challenges by not just surviving—but thriving. They and their stories have been a tremendous inspiration and reflection of people who stopped being disabled by their challenges and started being enabled.
At the center of this enablement is often a “spiritual story.” Frequently, this story begins when people have done any of the following: “hit the bottom”, realize they have been lying to themselves and others, recognize how much they are getting in their way, or opening up to receiving the help of others—in this case God. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You we believe this transformation occurs when people start becoming more connected to their Divine essence. The Love, Life and Energy—God Is within them becomes progressively more immediate and available to them. As the story continues they started looking beyond the “boundaries” of their challenge and toward the “opportunities” of their abilities. Accompanying this transformation is the resolution of egoic issues of power (a sense of intense weakness involving the challenge they face), flexibility (a rigid way of looking at the challenge they face), or vulnerability (being consumed by fear in their efforts to meet the challenge they face). They have stopped allowing their challenge to disempower them, approach their challenge with limiting thoughts, and being consumed by fear of their challenge. They have also stopped allowing the challenge to define them and what they know of themselves—only the human portion of themselves.
There are some of these enabled persons who say they have had a better life as a result of having “conquered” the challenge, than would have been the case had it not been a part of their lives. Some also add that they were glad that it was a part of their life. At first look this would be difficult to fathom. Who would want to experience the pain and misery which often comes with a significant challenge. However, this is a purely human perspective. When one considers the spiritual doors that were opened wider these reflections make a lot more sense. They didn’t just conquer the challenge, they conquered themselves. More specifically, the imbalanced ego energy which often has us getting in our way, even though we are good, intelligent, and well-intentioned beings. They also conquered the distance they were experiencing in their relationship with God as they awakened fully to the God within their being. Their experiences do raise an important question for one to consider in the light of our own human imperfection and the challenges we all face. “Are you fully enabled by all which is available to you?”—the synergy of your Humanity and Divinity!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Thank-You for Your Service!
There is so much to be thankful for as we go through this season of “conscious thankfulness” celebrating Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day. This is an opportunity to be reflective of what we have to be thankful for and to whom we must be thankful. A reflection of what others have done for us and an opportunity to see the “face” of God in others. But what about the service to others for which we are deserving of recognition and thanks—when we are reflecting the face of God. This blog is not about attempting to enhance one’s ego or sense of importance. It is about the significance of what you are doing and what you are offering to others—which you may be missing. Even if you haven’t gotten to that place where you are doing exactly what you believe you came here to do—your “life’s work.”
I (Nick) remember some brief conversations with my father who spent 40+ years working 60 hr. weeks as a chef. From those conversations, I don’t believe he fully recognized the great service he was offering in the preparation of great meals for those celebrating a variety of special occasions or moments in their lives. He seemed to chalk it up as a job he was doing just to make a living. He was like the sanitation worker failing to recognize how they ensure the health and appearance of the community, the police officer failing to recognize how they promote the safety and stability of society, the bus driver making it possible for others to get to important appointments or visits, the teacher opening up the potential of a person’s mind, the lawyer ensuring that one’s rights are represented, the salesperson informing customers about products, the nutritionist educating people about what they are putting into their body, ……and all of the other occupations we may be engaged in—willingly or unwillingly.
We mention this because research shows that over 80% of people are not satisfied or happy with their jobs. We believe some of this has to do with failing to recognize the significance of what they are doing—for others if not for themselves. Awakening to this realization can make your work more meaningful even as you work toward doing what you ultimately want to do. One of the ironies from doing these seemingly thankless jobs, is they are often the times when we are being the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is. Many often look back fondly upon those times and with good reason. They were giving to others more so than themselves. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You there is service, meaning, and purpose—human and spiritual—in everything we do. Even when we fail to recognize it or someone has brought it to our attention. From a former dishwasher, car washer, bakery factory employee, deli clerk, secretary and bank teller—Thank-You for Your Service!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Healing Yourself Within
We all have a tremendous capacity to heal from within. This capacity has been given to us by the “wisdom of the ages” and evolution. It is this wisdom shaped by the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, that has fashioned our design over the past three million years even though we were born in the “recent” past. In this respect, we are very much alike. We need only to understand this inner capacity and tap into it rather than constantly looking for answers outside of ourselves. You can heal yourself with ego medicine, focused ego meditation, and sacred sound meditation. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, your healing begins with the willingness to truly know yourself—humanly and spiritually!
A major contributor to healing yourself involves understanding your ego energy and bringing it into balance where needed. It is this energy which significantly impacts your success in the key life areas we discuss and the roles you are living. Ego Medicine involves getting to know what ego is and isn’t, tuning into your specific ego energy, and using ego related reality based thinking. Each of the books in our trilogy—Ego Therapy, EgoSpiritualism, and The Two Voices Within are intended to help you with doing this.
Our six Focused Ego Meditations provide an opportunity to reflect upon the transformation and healing of your ego energy as you are bringing it into balance with ego medicine. The “Roles People Live” page on this website can help you determine which ones you will want to listen to. During a meditation, you will look into the “mirrors” of your life involving the key life areas and reflect upon the positive changes you are making as well as those which need to be made. It is from these reflections of healthy, balanced ego energy at work in your life that you can know how far you have come in your journey.
Our Energy Expansion Meditation uses the healing sounds of crystal singing bowls to promote balance and harmony. This guided meditation along with other spiritual tools including prayer, yoga, mindfulness practice, humor, and healthy patterns of exercise, diet, and sleep are opportunities to heal from within. We refer to them as spiritual tools because they resonate with the intelligent design we have been given by the wisdom of the ages to heal from within. This healing allows for us to call upon ourselves and has no earthly requirements placed upon it involving ample time and money, the need to seek healing from others or travel elsewhere, or higher intellectual capacity. Our work contributes to their use when one’s healthy, balanced ego energy allows for stillness and peace, optimizing their availability to us.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Embrace Your Spirituality!
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, we are spiritual beings encountering a human experience. There is nothing new in that statement as many spiritual consciousness teachers have spoken those words of wisdom. However, we want to drill down deeper into what that means as failing to grasp this meaning leads us to believe the opposite—we are human beings trying to encounter a spiritual experience. Each of us are born with the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is woven into our being. That is the heritage of every living being that has, is, or will ever live, irrespective of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. We may have been born in the “recent” past and acquired or inherited a distinct human heritage, but the design making our existence and all of our experiences possible is 3 million years old! It is the design which links us to the Oneness of the Universe. This design allows us to share with and be connected to all beings even though we have never met them due to human parameters of person, place or time. When we are truly being the Love, Life and Energy—God Is, within our thoughts, words, and deeds, we are intimately connected to all beings—and they to us—even though we never saw, met, heard, or touched them. Love, Life, and Energy transcends all of those human experiences to experience connection to all beings—which is the essence of spirituality.
So you may ask, “What does failing to embrace our spirituality look like and how does that happen?” Failing to embrace our spirituality is reflected in the dysfunctional ways we interact with people, weaken close relationships, fail to love ourselves, misuse or abandon our potential, refuse to grow our mind, resist healthy change, embrace faulty ways of experiencing happiness, and destructively approach adversity, stressors, and conflict which enters into our lives. It is also occurring when we are not living in peace with ourselves, loved ones, and the world at large; are motivated by fear or anger rather than love; embrace faulty expectations of ourselves and others; confuse faulty wants with genuine needs; make unhealthy choices for our body, mind, and spirit; are consumed with the past or preoccupied with the future while being absent from the present; unwilling to accept ourselves; and failing to be the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is.
We experience distance from our spirituality when imbalanced ego energy involving power, flexibility, or vulnerability leads us into faulty understanding and expectations of ourselves, others, and life. These thoughts, ideas, beliefs, prejudices, illusions, etc. foster distance and disconnection from the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is which was, is, and will always exist within our being. It is hidden by an intense humanity—actually inhumanity—directed toward ourselves or others in our daily life. This is when we are disconnecting ourselves from our spirituality. When we can recognize when and how we are doing this, we can stop disconnecting ourselves and become what we were always meant to be—a child of God.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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God is not a “Who!”
What a strange title for a blog. Strange for many because it acknowledges the obvious—God is not human. Strange because the thought is embedded in many of the religious teachings we have encountered over the years—God exists within the spiritual realm. Strange because we never refer to God in human terms—as having thoughts, experiencing feelings, having preferences, or taking action. Wait, Wait, Wait! There’s a problem with the last one and it’s also linked to the first two. Haven’t we heard references to God in written and spoken teachings that ascribe human qualities? Human qualities in which God has a gender (Him or Her), is loving or angry, rewarding or punitive, or has preferences attached to religious, political, or cultural approaches, even sports teams/accomplishments, to mention just a very few. God is not a who but every time we use references in which human qualities are connected directly to God that is exactly what we are doing. We are turning God into a who within our human frame of reference. Unfortunately, this has huge negative implications for our understanding of God. It sows the seeds for the conflict and destructiveness that has and continues to take place between people built upon defining who God is.
Many may think and respond by saying that human characteristics attached to God are just metaphorical or figurative and intended to help us to better understand God. Unfortunately, this understanding has two significant problems connected to it: 1) Metaphor is only helpful if one is able to appreciate and keep track of the abstraction involved and not convert it into a concrete, literal meaning. Failing to do so often leads one to cling tightly to the latter as it is often better suited to one’s cognitive and emotional “comfort zone.” This serves to make God extremely human and less spiritual to us even if we are not consciously aware of doing this. 2) Human characteristics attributed to God have often sown the seeds for divisiveness, particularly within and between religions. A divisiveness in which anger, hatred, and war have all occurred in the name of honoring what God “wants” from us. A divisiveness in which the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is within the fundamentally good, well-meaning, and intelligent participants has become lost and an absence of spirituality is being manifested.
If God is not a who then “what” is God? The what is, God Is—Love, Life, and Energy! Everything that was here and always here before humans, human consciousness and human frames of understanding God were formed by people. Love which is unconditional, unburdened, inexhaustible, and connective when we are being it. The life which recognizes the presence of God in all life forms honors all life and realizes the eternal nature of life when we are being it. The energy of light and truth, diverse in manifestation, transformative, and healing when we are being it.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You when we manifest Love, Life, and Energy within our daily thoughts, words, and deeds, we are being what God Is.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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“Are You Seeing The Big Picture?”
We have all heard the phrase “seeing the big picture.” A phrase which generally means being able to see and understand most, if not all, of what is taking place in the ‘big picture.’ The big picture can involve work, relationships, parenting, health, conflict, stress, ourselves, and so many more aspects of life. Regardless of what it involves the one main idea connected to it is truth—human and Divine. Each truth brings us to all we need to see, hear, or know, not just our preferences or what allows us to feel good, which often makes it difficult to find. Truth and seeing the big picture is often painful at first because it takes us out of our comfort zone. It can be so much easier to embrace faulty beliefs, particularly if we are unable to recognize them as such. Fortunately, truth—human and Divine, if we can awaken to them, ultimately leads us to joy, peace, and happiness as it is in alignment with the Great life we are meant to live.
Unfortunately, keeping distance from truth, no matter how comfortable, often resigns us by default into living within the “little picture”, something we often fail to realize. The more pain you experience and the greater the number of places it is occurring, the more likely you are living within the little picture. This little picture often gives us less rather than more out of life and ourselves. Even though we are good, intelligent and well-meaning persons with the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is, woven into our being. Distance from truth intensifies as power, flexibility, or vulnerability issues in our ego energy lead us unknowingly into the land of faulty beliefs, desired or undesired. We become intensely locked into the little picture as egoic illusions which form its boundaries crystallize. These illusions of separation, inequality, unworthiness, and others serve to distance us from our humanity and Divinity. They often lead unknowingly into being inhumane toward ourselves, others, or both. Often failing to see what is really taking place and the big picture.
So what can one do to move beyond the little picture and begin seeing the big picture? A big picture in which you are living the best version of yourself and the Great life you are meant to live. The first, most difficult, and most important step is to be willing to see how you are getting it wrong—humanly—before getting it right. Owning what one needs to own opens many doors to getting to one’s own truth—human and Divine, not someone else’s, and certainly not the faulty versions of them coming from one’s imbalanced ego energy. This involves recognizing how your ego energy is shaping your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiology, keeping you at a distance from seeing the big picture. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You we have all been there. The next step is the easy one. You already are a spiritual being and don’t need to become one. If you weren’t you could not exist—nothing could! The Divine Truth woven into your being awaits your full embrace when being the Love, Life, and Energy you are and will lead you to see the big picture and the Great life you were meant to live!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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What’s Your Energy?
What’s Your Energy?: Many years ago—the 1960’s to be exact—a question people may have been asked was, “What’s your sign?” Some used it as a conversation starter and others used it as a pick-up line at a bar. The answer connected to the question—one’s zodiac sign—was linked to some indication of an individual’s personality and whether it was compatible with that of the person asking the question. Most of the time the question had a light-weight quality as most people believed, and correctly so, that personality and compatibility have far more numerous influences beyond zodiac signs for particular persons.
That being said, we don’t believe the question was completely without merit. The workings of the universe at-large should not be completely dismissed if you believe in the ultimate Oneness and Unity that resonates within spirituality and being connected to all things. Our question is in some respects an echo of the earlier question, but with some important tweaks. It focuses on an inside influence upon who you are being and your connection to the universe. More specifically, what is the nature of your human or egoic energy and whether it is in balance (opening up your connection to the universe) or imbalanced in its power, flexibility, or vulnerability (serving to block this connection). The answer to the question can be found in the roles you and others may be living and which can have a profound impact upon your life within the confines of relationships, ability to love yourself in healthy ways, and your ability to recognize and live genuine happiness, to name just a few. An impact which also affects being the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is within your daily life.
Are you or someone you know a Narcissist, Dictator, Control Freak, Depressive, Martyr or Dependent (reflective of ego power energy imbalance)? Are you or someone you know an Authoritarian, Racist, Sexist, Religious Extremist, Paranoid, Cultist or Puppet (reflective of ego flexibility energy issues)? Are you or someone you know a Perfectionist, High-Maintenance Partner, Over-Achiever, Stressed-Out Person, Sociopath, Hedonist or Loner (reflective of ego vulnerability energy issues? These are just some of the roles we can be living, which are rooted in our human/ego energy. When we are oblivious to this energy and it is imbalanced, getting an answer to the question—What’s Your Energy?—becomes extremely important. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, failure to do so resigns us to living a lesser version of ourselves, becoming intensely human, and disconnected from our spirituality.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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The Brilliance of Divine Truth
The Brilliance of Divine Truth.: You have probably heard many people refer to being in search of the truth or their truth. A search that can often involve reading lots of books, attending various seminars, or finding teachers/gurus who may lead them toward it. A search that often involves a lot of time, energy, and money to find the “truth.” A search that is often fruitless as the person is often looking in the wrong places or people to find it. Divine Truth—the truth we are speaking of—is much simpler, more immediate, and consistently available to you. The Love, Life & Energy—God Is requires no greater intellect, education, or teacher to be known. Its brilliance is beyond the reach of any of those “requirements” to be known. You don’t even need to hear or read the brilliant words of the greatest consciousness teachers the world has ever known—Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad—to know it. It is far less elusive than we humans make it out to be. As the great Islamic poet Rumi stated, “What you seek is seeking you.” The Love, Life, & Energy—God Is, is seeking you!
The question you may have if you are not being Divine Truth within your life is, “Why am I having a difficult time knowing and living this Truth?” Part of the answer involves the “demands and requirements” you are placing upon yourself to connect to this Truth. You are bypassing the simplicity, immediacy, and consistency of the Love, Life, and Energy that is staring you in the face. As an example, begin to recognize the “Godness” in every living thing you encounter—person, animal, plant, insect—as without God’s presence within their being they could not be or exist, nor you. Life cannot be without God’s presence within it as God Is—Life. Very simple, Very immediate, and Very consistent, with no burden being required to establish this awareness.
One other important influence that can make Divine Truth elusive for many to connect to is one’s ego energy. The more imbalanced it is in its power, flexibility, or vulnerability, the more distant one becomes from human truth. Attempting to find Divine Truth through faulty human truth and beliefs is a fruitless and empty exercise. An effort that often embraces egoic illusions of separation, inequality, and unworthiness which weakens one’s ability to witness the Love, Life, and Energy which surrounds them and is within them. Vivid examples of this can be seen in historical occurrences of religious intolerance and conflict, the need to fight battles to establish racial, religious, gender, and sexual orientation equality, as well as terrorist groups such as ISIS. The Love, Life, & Energy—God Is, shares no common ground with any of that. Healing one’s ego energy where needed in its power, flexibility, or vulnerability opens the door wide to the Divine Truth which is and has always been seeking you. No matter who or where you are.
In Peace and Love,
Nick & Linda
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Heaven is Here!
Heaven is Here!: What a ridiculous, nonsensical, or stupid idea—or is it? Most of us have been taught during our lives about the notion of “heaven.” Connected to this notion are many ideas intended to help us to better understand what it is and encourage us to make it our life’s ultimate goal. Some of these include: heaven is there not here, you have to die to get there, you have to earn your way into heaven, and heaven is akin to a physical utopia where you can have anything your heart desires. But what if none of that is true? What if you don’t have to die, go somewhere, earn it, or have all of your human desires met? What if heaven is a consciousness and not a place? A consciousness in which we have fully awakened here and now—humanly and spiritually!
What if it’s much simpler than we humans have made it out to be and are missing it every day of our life?—until we “get it.” A beautiful simplicity built upon the brilliance of Divine Truth. A simplicity in which we fully recognize and live the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is within our being—here and now. A simplicity in which we fully recognize and live the Great Gifts of Life, Creating Life, Eternal Life, and God Within—here and now. A simplicity in which we have removed the bars comprising the “Gates of Heaven” involving egoic illusions of separation, unworthiness, inequality, sensing all energy, disorder, and egoic control—here and now. If so, “there” becomes here, death becomes rebirth, earning and reward becomes being Love, Life, and Energy, and physical utopia becomes Divine Perfection.
Many may be bothered by what we are saying, particularly those with a deep connection to religion. It can be discomforting to read something that conflicts with what one has been taught for years. Our ego energy, particularly when it’s imbalanced, leads us toward the familiar, consistent, and predictable to remove any sense of dissonance. We cling to belief, even when truth may serve us better in the long run. One may rightfully ask, “What makes your version of truth, truth?” From the perspective of Ego, Spirit, & You, truth is embodied by something that always is, is available to everyone, and applies to everyone. Divine Truth and the Great Gifts reflect each of these and are the means to entering heaven—here and now!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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What is EgoSpiritualism?
What is EgoSpiritualism?: Several years ago we began to search for a word that captures the essence of a consciousness in which we are living the best of our humanity in synergy with our Divinity. A word capturing the best of the two profound energies at work in our being—Ego and Spirit. A word which describes entry into the Great life we are meant to live. EgoSpiritualism is the word that puts each of the energies at the core of our being on equal footing. It recognizes that transformation to the best version of ourselves requires a human and spiritual awakening—not just the latter. This is significantly different from traditional messages over the past 3,000 years which have only emphasized spiritual awakening. These messages are outdated and haven’t promoted broader evolution toward personal and world peace. We are still very much in the same place as when Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad spoke their brilliant words on consciousness. We remain very much asleep—egoically.
So what does one experience within EgoSpiritualism as you are living it?
- Being at peace with yourself, the people in your life, and the world at large.
- Being motivated by love rather than fear, anger, or guilt in your life’s work.
- Being free of inappropriate expectations of yourself, from others, and of others.
- Being respectful of your Body, Mind & Spirit within choices of what you bring into them.
- Being able to like and love yourself as you are while working with any of your weaknesses.
- Being free of false wants while recognizing true needs allowing you to experience genuine happiness.
- Being able to fully embrace your potential while recognizing the service you are here to provide.
- Being emotionally connected to others rather than emotionally attached or detached.
- Being able to live fully in the present rather than being chained to the past or preoccupied with the future.
- Recognizing the Love God Is—which is connective, unconditional, unlimited, and beyond burden within yourself and all beings.
- Recognizing the Life God Is—within all beings which makes their existence possible.
- Recognizing the Energy God Is—within the transformative light and truth which exists within you.
- Knowing the Gift of Life and the abundance which has been made available to you.
- Knowing the Gift of Creating Life and the opportunity you have to create the life in which you are living.
- Knowing the Gift of Eternal Life which allows you as much time and as many opportunities you need to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Knowing the Gift of God Within so you can never truly walk alone as you make your way along your life’s path toward the Kingdom of Heaven.
So how does one enter into EgoSpiritualism?
Heal your ego energy with ego medicine which brings into balance your ego power, flexibility, and vulnerability, where needed. Ego medicine which involves: 1) Understanding what ego is and isn’t, 2) Tuning into your specific ego energy, and 3) Using ego-related reality based thinking. It is within the brilliance of human and Divine Truth that the door will fully open and you will transform into what you were meant to be, which has always awaited you.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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“To BE or not to BE”
“To BE or not to BE”: One of the most famous, often spoken questions, is the opening to Hamlet’s soliloquy, in which he ponders the choice between life and death—to be or not to be. A choice in which one can face the incessant challenges of the darker side of life or opt for the “freedom” but unknown opportunities of death. A choice between the known aspects of one’s life situation and the unknown possibilities beyond this life. A choice between the inaction of continuing to live while mired in the circumstances of one’s life or action in choosing to move beyond them to those unknown one’s which may lie beyond the earthly realm.
With all due respect to Shakespeare, one of the most brilliant and eloquent writers who captured the human experience that we have ever known, his question via the proxy of Hamlet and its contemplation is much to narrow. His characterization of life (to be) is much too dark, empty, and fatalistic. It speaks to only helplessness within the human condition, which raises the plausibility of death at one’s own hands as the answer. A life which does comport to the ones being lived by those we have met who would summarily describe their life as “poor” or “fair.” The question leaves them with no option within the living realm. It offers no genuine hope for those who choose to remain in their earthly life and move beyond it –here! It also bypasses those who have found their way to the “good” and “great” versions of themselves and life. The ‘to be’ in Hamlet’s question is intended to represent life but in many respects describes a lifeless life and offers no recognition of the options and answers to be found within the human and spiritual realm—to Be.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, the real question is, “To BE or not to BE?” A question which involves choosing between a life-full (to BE) or lifeless (not to BE) existence—here and now! A question in which one has come to fully know the word BE. A recognition in which BE and its “cousins” being and becoming, come forth when one’s ego energy is in balance. This balance of power, flexibility, and vulnerability, allowing one to share control and influence with life and others, ability to adapt to the ever changing nature of life, and ability to healthily work with the imperfections of oneself, others, and life. A person with healthy ego energy would never find their way to alternatives to living—be it Hamlet’s or our version of ’not to be’. We can also BE in the recognition of the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is within our being, and the Great Gifts of Life, Creating Life, Eternal Life, and God Within, that everyone who has ever lived have been given.
“To BE or not to BE”—that is the real question!
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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“Our Darkest Hour—Our Finest Hour”
“Our Darkest Hour—Our Finest Hour”: There are times in our lives when things may look pretty bleak. Those times are upon us when we have lost an important relationship, become estranged from family, compromised our health, lost a job, lost our freedom, etc. This time often makes no sense because we know ourselves as an intelligent, good, and well-meaning person who does not want to go around hurting ourselves or others. Hopefully, the ‘hour’ is only a short amount of time so we can get back to fully living life. Our Higher Self, the God within our being will speak to us, helping us to get back to being who we want to be. To be the Love, Life, & Energy—God Is within our being. When we fail to hear this voice and bad things keep happening, it usually means our egoic voice, rooted in imbalanced ego energy, is speaking within us but we don’t realize this.
Unfortunately for many, the darkest hour isn’t some relatively brief period of time. It can last for years, decades, or even the remainder of one’s lifetime. These are persons who when asked, “How is your life?”, may answer summarily with ’poor’ or ‘fair’. A sense of resignation often sets in, leading them to believe they are at the mercy of life and it will give them what it will. They may become consumed with explanations that excessively blame others or themselves with little middle ground and do not offer any way out of their plight. Unknowingly, hidden imbalanced ego energy involving power, flexibility, or vulnerability issues is keeping them in their personal prison. How do we know that? Because many others have freed themselves as their ego energy becomes more balanced and they see what they need to see about themselves, others, and life.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You our darkest hour can be our finest hour, when we have awakened to what is truly going on, and own what we need to own. It is within that moment of clarity that life begins to move from life-less to life-full. Light begins to replace the darkness. A light filled with human truth and Divine Truth. We begin to see more of the ego energy we were living and how it brought us to our darkest hour(s). We begin to recognize the healing available within the light of truth once we have gone through the pain of coming to terms with whom we have been. We begin to recognize the Love, Life, & Energy—God Is within our being and become more of it in our earthly life. There can be no more dark hours as the brilliant light of truth shines upon you and from you.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
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Nonreligious-Spiritually Connected
Nonreligious-Spiritually Connected: We recently read an interesting article Millennials and religion: The great disconnect (Pittsburgh-Post Gazette/12-13-15) that focused on the relevance and relationship that religion has for individuals 18-34 yrs. old. There were various studies quoted involving declining trends in religious involvement for these individuals across religious denominations. Also there was mention of various reasons for this occurrence such as perceived conflict between religion and science, perceptions of religion as too constrictive and conservative, and perception of church teaching as hypocritical. To those we would add the destructiveness and war which has often occurred in the name of religion throughout history, has turned many people off to it.
A “positive” reason that was not mentioned is that many people, particularly younger ones, no longer view religious involvement as a pre-requisite to their relationship with God. Many consciously or intuitively sense the ability and necessity of establishing their own personally defined relationship with God—which is the essence of spirituality. They are the ‘nonreligious-spiritually connected’ and their numbers are growing. Interestingly, within the above-mentioned lengthy article the words spirit and spirituality never appear. We found this remarkable for an article focused on religious participation. To the degree that this occurred due to the understanding that religion and spirituality are synonymous, there needs to be a great deal of clarification in order to understand what is transpiring in this aspect of life for many millennials and people in general.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, religion continues to have an important place. We still need it to play its role in the current stage of evolution as we strive to awaken humanly and spiritually. Religion can be a beautiful bridge to our spirit and spirituality when the words spoken by clergy and messages presented within writings and actions are filled with helping us to know the Love, Life, and Energy—God Is within ourselves and fellow man.
In peace & love,
Nick and Linda
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The “Right” Energy
The “Right” Energy:
During the past six months the word energy has made its appearance in the political rhetoric in regards to presidential candidates. And rightfully so, since the kind of energy at work has an impact on whether or not things get done. In this political season there has been the presumption that high energy is good and low energy is bad. This presumption naively concludes that it is the quantity of the energy that matters, while bypassing the quality of the energy fueling the prospective leader’s efforts.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, more energy is not good if it is of poor quality. Things may get done but at what hidden or not-so-hidden cost? The right energy is a mixture of balanced power, flexibility, and vulnerability in one’s human energy—our ego energy. Our leaders must be comfortable with power, but not so consumed by it that they want to control everyone and everything. Our leaders must be flexible enough to learn new things from others applicable to the present circumstances and not chained to the past to the degree they are enslaved by it. Our leaders must be vulnerable enough to recognize their imperfections so they can be guided by their strengths and weaknesses in their efforts to work with others and set forth policy.
It is from this energy that our country can move forward in a progressively diverse and complex world. The right energy can be found in a person of any gender, race, culture, religious, or political affiliation. We just have to look for it within the patterns of thoughts, words, and deeds within our prospective leaders. It cannot be found in simply hearing what we want to hear or seeing what we want to see, that makes us feel good or serves to release our anger and frustration.
Finding the right person with the right energy includes being the right energy within ourselves. Failing to be the right energy, places us at risk of doing the unthinkable—electing a dictator, someone with the wrong energy. You may think this is ridiculous in a country such as America built upon freedom. However, consider the following excerpt from our book The Two Voices Within, particularly the words of Ego being spoken within someone living the role of Dictator.
In peace and love,
Nick and Linda
The Dictator: The Dictator believes that he has the right to control how others must think, feel, and behave. He knows himself as greater than others by virtue of his intellect, talent, or money. He has a sense of superiority that entitles him to exert unquestioned influence on others. He becomes extremely angered by those who may question him or who are seen as seeking to reduce his power. This often leads him to strive to remove this challenge with responses that are often abusive. He is often blind to this abuse due to the power that consumes him.
Ego’s Voice: I am the source of your intense need to dominate the people who surround you in your life. You are led to believe that your way is the right way and must prevail; therefore, you have no need to listen to or communicate to others. That would only involve getting poor ideas and choices, which would weaken you. You do not need to feel compassion for the mistakes or weaknesses of others. Their pain is the cost for failing to do things the way you know they should be done. Your compassion takes the form of leading them to a better understanding of how to do things. Domination is your oxygen, the means to your safety and survival and you must have it.
You must get people to do things and think the way you do by any means possible. These people can be your children, partner, friends, employees, or acquaintances. The means by which you persuade them can include intimidation, coercion, manipulation, exploitation, or abuse. You must think of them as being weaker and incapable of leading themselves. They must be led, and you must do the leading. Your greater abilities were meant to do this leading. Anyone else’s leadership or guidance must be challenged or defeated. If you or others followed them, it would represent weakness and a threat to your survival.
You are entitled to feel angry when others fail or refuse to do your will. You are also entitled to use this anger as a force to alter their will, when and where necessary. The consequences they receive are the price they must pay for violating your will—a will that knows what is good and right for everyone. You are also entitled to destroy those who would stand in your way. They intend to weaken you and threaten your survival. You must meet their force with overwhelming force to eliminate their threat to you.
People are not entitled to be angry with you and any of their anger toward you is misplaced. They fail to understand that you are only attempting to help them with your knowledge, understanding, and guidance. They should be loving you instead, as what you offer them is intended to help make them stronger rather than remaining in their weakness. You are being generous to them, as you are not only working to ensure your survival, but theirs as well.
Spirit’s Voice: The excessive power within your humanity has greatly distanced you from your Divinity. It is within your power that illusions of separation, inequality, and unworthiness have been fashioned with which to know your neighbor. These illusions have also led you to know yourself as all-powerful and separated from God. The Love, Life, and Energy God Is within all beings is unknown to you. Your Divinity can be known with the awareness that God Is Love and that you have the Gift of God Within your being.
You do not know the Love that truly exists in your being. It has been replaced by thoughts, words, and deeds filled with anger and hatred that you are using to dominate others. All of these are reflections of the suffering that you do not realize you are living. Each creating greater distance from the Love God Is within your being. You are also visiting this suffering upon others in your efforts to dominate them. This domination is intended to serve your need for power while making your neighbor separated, less equal, and unworthy of you. As your earthly power grows, so does your suffering and the distance from God within you and within your neighbor.
You exist as if you were alone and isolated in your dealings with people. You are also unable to recognize the presence of God within others. This ignorance has made people dangerous and threatening to you, and you feel you must resist this danger and threat with your power and control. You don’t really know other people at all, which is a reflection of your suffering. You cannot truly love them or be loved by them, because you believe this would threaten your survival, another reflection of your suffering.
God’s absence in your awareness has led you to the illusion of being all-powerful, superior to others, and not in need of God in your life. Great human power has led you to have no limits or boundaries in your dealings with people. Everything is at your disposal, you believe—even those thoughts, words, or deeds that are destructive and harmful to others, and ultimately, to yourself. This is a reflection of your suffering. Your inability to know the equality of all human beings, built upon your notion of supremacy, has made you callous and insensitive to them, another reflection of your suffering. Your lack of need for God has blinded you to who you truly are and led you to walk a lonely path filled with anger, hatred, and destruction, all further reflections of your suffering.
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Religious Extremism and Low Ego Flexibility
Religious Extremism and Low Ego Flexibility:
What is at the root of the intolerance and violence that humans so often display toward one another? An imbalanced ego! Low ego flexibility energy is one of the key issues that can lead people to treat one another with hatred rather than love. This energy and the destructive thoughts it promotes can be at work for people of any religious path, be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or any other faith. Failing to recognize these ego-induced thoughts, as well as the voice of Spirit, sets the stage for this intolerance and violence. Each creates greater distance from the God within one’s being, which is exactly the path that leads a person to become a religious extremist. Religion often gets blamed for the terrible things that people may do to each other. But it isn’t religion’s fault at all. The blame lies at the feet of low ego flexibility energy. To heal, religious extremists need to hear the voices of Ego and Spirit so they can truly know their humanity and Divinity.
To delve further into this topic, we’d like to share with you an excerpt from our latest book, The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life. Its purpose is to recognize and illuminate ego induced thoughts for an individual whose ego energy is consumed with low ego flexibility.
In peace and love,
Nick & Linda
The Religious Extremist: The Religious Extremist has a dogmatic approach to his religious belief system, viewing it as speaking the absolute truth about matters pertaining to faith and God. He often views those with different religious views as being removed from knowing or honoring God. The roles, rules, rituals, and customs pertaining to his religion are to be followed literally and rigidly. There is no room for alternative interpretations or modifications, which would dishonor him and violate his tradition.
Ego’s Voice: You are to know that your way to know God is the only way. It is the way all others must come to know and honor God. Their way can only lead them astray and away from God. You must not listen to non-believers, as this can only lead you astray and endanger you. You must keep all that has been within the tradition and resist all that is new or different, as anything new can only lead you astray, weaken you, and endanger you. Beware of those within your midst who would alter the tradition. They are not true believers. The teachings and the tradition are your oxygen, and you must have them in order to be safe and to survive.
You must treat others who do not believe as you do with suspicion and scorn. They are the godless. Treating these non-believers this way, and harboring anger and hatred for them, will keep you safe. Let anger be present in your thoughts, words, and deeds. This will keep you safe. If necessary, you must destroy those who would challenge your truth about God. Doing so will honor your truth and God.
Those who do not share your truth must be known as separated and unworthy of God. You must know them as unequal to you because of their weaker beliefs. You must know the difference in their beliefs as disorder and chaos that threatens both you and them. This will end when they believe as you do. You must compel them to believe like you in order to be safe and saved. Those who do not listen will be damned.
Spirit’s Voice: All ways to knowing the Love, Life, and Energy God Is are welcome. There are no right earthly ways to be the Love, Life, and Energy God Is. These Divine Truths have no earthly boundaries formed in the minds of human beings. The Kingdom of Heaven has no earthly boundaries or doors from which to enter. No one can claim to have the most complete knowledge of God, as God Is within all beings. One can only truly know God from being the Love, Life, and Energy God Is. All are One within the Divine Realm.
One cannot be made worthy or unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven by earthly beliefs, for one is born worthy. They must only choose to awaken to their worthiness. God cannot be truly distanced from oneself or from others by earthly illusions of separation rooted in beliefs, as God is present always in all believers and non-believers. Each has the Love, Life, and Energy God Is within their being. They must only awaken to these Truths. The Kingdom of Heaven does not follow earthly notions of order and control, which only place limits on your ability to know God and your Divine Gifts. These limits weaken your ability to embody the Love, Life, and Energy God Is.
All earthly ways of knowing God—past, present, or future—are welcome. Within the Divine Realm, you cannot be enemies with those who do not believe as you do. This is only an earthly belief you have created. There is no place for enemies in your heart when you are being the Love, Life, and Energy God Is. Anger, fear, and guilt have no place in doing the work of God. No one can be compelled to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by another’s beliefs. They can only enter in the time and place of their choosing. They can only walk their own path, and no one else’s.
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Being the Love God Is
Being the Love God Is:
We have all had moments in our lives when we felt love as deeply as we ever could. Times when we looked into the eyes of our children, or were within the company of our pets, or within service to any other being, and knew nothing could stand in our way. A love that carried no weight or burden, had no limits, and was without any conditions. A love with such connection that there was no distance between us and whom we were loving. This is when we were being the best version of ourselves. This is when we were being the Love God Is.
Often we read or hear about God doing something that is loving. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, God is deeper and more pervasive than that. The Love God Is–is the foundation for all of our loving experiences. Without it, we could not be loving within our thoughts, words, and deeds. As humans we can only choose to manifest the Love God Is, or not. A choice affected by the nature of our ego energy. The Love God Is is present in every being, animal, plant, or human. We can only choose to witness it and manifest it, as we did within those previously mentioned moments.
Recently, 60 Minutes did a story on four nurses who cared for the man who was being treated for and later died from Ebola. Each was a young adult, some with a spouse or children, one with a pregnant wife, all concerned with or fearful of the dark, unknown territory they were entering into, possibly placing their life at risk, and each volunteered for the service they were offering. They described the profuse vomiting and diarrhea they were charged with cleaning up and discarding. They also described the deep, loving regard with which they held for Mr. Duncan in his time of need and approaching death. A description in which they described the opportunity to care for Mr. Duncan as one of the most important of their lives. Of course it was. They were being the Love God Is.
Namaste’
Our True Essence
Our True Essence:
We are all Spiritual beings having a physical experience here on Earth. However, many of us tend to think and believe that we are simply just physical beings, and live through the physical process of life on Earth trying to accomplish our list of chores and responsibilities. However, these obligations we decide are so important for us to accomplish, are merely distractions that keep us from connecting to our true essence. This true essence exists within each living being, but unfortunately, the human species seems to have the hardest time making this connection. If we think about the other species on our planet, they are perfectly comfortable being who they are, unless we humans get in their way.
Awakening to our true essence will allow us the opportunity to awaken to our inner gifts, which are our spiritual gifts from God. Listening to our heart’s desire will assist us in this awakening. Our heart and soul will call us to be who we were created to be. If we trust this calling, we will be able to live a life of harmony, joy, and abundance.
Namaste’
The Beauty of Change
The Beauty of Change:
As I look out my window at the changing of the seasons, I feel such peace and gratitude for the beauty Mother Nature displays for us, even if just for a brief time. We are moving through a season of change, leaving the warm temperatures behind for awhile, and preparing to weather what winter has in store for us. Change is apparent, and we are a part of the changing seasons.
I know that life is about change, it must be, for if we stayed the same, we could never grow or evolve as we feel and know we must. We as humans have this awareness within us to want more, a desire to be more than we are. This is partly necessary as it spurs us onward to newer and greater ideas, inventions, and many other things that make this a wonderful world. Without change life would become very stagnant. We all have changed in many ways throughout our life, and life has changed around us. How we deal with change can speak a lot about ourselves as well. The world is going through some challenging transitions, and we are a part of these changes and transitions. It can be scary at times, especially if we are listening to the media. But we must remember that as we grow and live in a changing world, it is important to know that one thing will never change. Our Divinity will never change. Each one of us always has been and always will be. To understand what this truly means will bring for you a peace that allows acceptance and compassion to fill you, instead of fear or anxiety. You are part of the whole, one with our Earth Mother and Divine Father.
We are many and we are one, and we will continue to change and transition with each passing season, but we will always and forever be a Divine Child of God.
Namaste’
Finding Love
Finding Love:
Everyone wants to have love in their life, and many people tend to think of love as coming from someone else or someplace else to fulfill them. However, we have all heard that the greatest love of all is the love for self. Even though this may be true, many have a hard time getting to this place of self love.
There may be many factors here that prevent us from truly coming to know the love we hold within our own hearts. It may be that we are still carrying faulty thoughts or beliefs about ourselves, which may have been established in our childhood through learning feelings of unworthiness or not being enough. If we are still living through these ideas about who we believe we are, we may be missing out on knowing our Spirit that lives within us. As humans we tend to live through our egoic energy unconsciously, which means we are unaware of how we are working through our egoic energy. If we continue to live through the egoic energy unconsciously, this will tend to keep faulty thoughts alive within us, until we can awaken to what is going on. It is up to us to awaken to what we are holding on to so we can assist the egoic energy within us to learn how to honor all that we are and move beyond any illusions we hold within. The more we can bring the ego into a place of balance within us the more easily we will begin to hear the voice of our Spirit talking to us through our heart center. Our Spirit will be telling us that we are worthy and deserving of this love from within and without. The ideas we may be carrying are illusions of what we once believed to be true, and we can now release this energy and step into the truth that allows our heart to open to the love we are. The Love God Is.
We can give ourselves permission to appreciate all that we have experienced in our past, good or bad, and come to see how it has brought us to this place we are right now. A place in time that allows us to create a sacred space within our own heart to honor all that we are, just as we are. Here we will find true, unconditional love.
Namaste’
Does being more Human make us less Spiritual?
Does being more Human make us less Spiritual?:
There are likely to be different responses to this question. Each impacted by one’s thoughts about what is meant by human, spiritual, and whether there is any relationship between the two. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You we believe the answer is yes. For us, the words ego and human are the same. A human being is an ego being, our human nature is our ego nature, and our human self is our ego self. Our humanity reflects the relationship we have with ourselves and others. Our spirituality reflects the relationship we have with God and our Divinity. There is a relationship between these two energies which emanate from the core of our being, our soul.
As one moves deeper and deeper into their humanity their ego energy becomes progressively more prominent and imbalanced in its power, flexibility, or vulnerability. This often leads one to become inhumane with themselves or others. The ‘Roles People Live’ list on our website provides lots of examples of people living intense ego energy, egoic imbalance, and inhumanity to themselves and others. These people are having difficulty being the Love, Life, and Energy God Is with themselves and others reflecting distance from their Divinity and a lack of genuine spirituality. A current relevant “poster child” for this spiritual disconnection is the religious extremist. You can pick any faith. One is not being the Love, Life, and Energy God Is when fomenting anger, destructiveness, intolerance, and hatred for others within one’s thoughts, words, and deeds. Any true Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu… follower knows that. An intense religious fervor cannot substitute for the absence of spirituality. By the way these people are fundamentally good, intelligent, and well-meaning persons who are consumed by their lower ego flexibility energy which has gotten then on the track of inhumanity to their fellow humans. The “Kingdom of Heaven” also awaits them, but this is not the means to their entry.
Some may ask the intriguing complementary question. Does being more spiritual make us less human? The answer is yes, which may come as a surprise to some. We become less human while becoming more humane. It is within becoming more spiritually awake that we manifest the Love, Life, and Energy God Is, and we are, while being humane to ourselves and others. A spiritual being having a human experience. A healthy in-balance egoic energy becomes available to us within this human experience as we live better versions of ourselves in a consciousness we have described as Egospiritualism.
Namaste’
What is Ego Medicine and Why do we need it?
What is Ego Medicine and Why do we need it?:
Within our books, Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self, EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self, and The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit for a Better Life and You we mention a new concept connected to self-help we refer to as ego medicine. Due to linkage to the ‘cognitive therapy’ approach to treatment originating in the work of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck it would be easy to conclude that ego medicine is simply a different label for essentially the same approach. However, this is not the case as ego medicine goes deeper to uncover the ego energy a person is living and the reality based thinking connected to that energy they must use to transform their energy where needed. The traditional cognitive approach does neither of these and often only leads to intellectual but not experiential insight and change. According to Ego, Spirit & You you must go deeper, to the core of your human beingness which is your specific egoic energy.
So what is ego medicine? There are two foundational contributors: 1) A progressively developing awareness of your ego energy as you are living it and 2) Use of reality-based thinking which is developed and used in response to an awareness of this energy. The awareness of one’s ego energy develops from an understanding of the components of this energy involving power, flexibility, and vulnerability which is thoroughly described in each of our books. These components are reflected by our thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and physiology within key life areas such as close relationships, achievement, conflict, and so on which we and our ego energy are called upon to manage, for better or worse. When it is worse, we get progressively entangled in non-reality based thinking fueled by the destructive nature of our ego energy. This diversity is reflected in the ‘Roles People Live’ page within our website and in TheTwo Voices Within where we bring forth the words of Ego that lead one toward particular non-reality based thoughts as well as dysfunctional feelings and behavior.
So why do we need to take it? A huge part of healing and healthiness involves becoming intimately connected to human truth and Divine Truth. We are designed by the wisdom of the ages to heal and be healthy when we aren’t getting in our way. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You you need to be connected to human truth and Divine Truth to experience all of the healing and health available to you. A weakened human truth diluted by egoically induced non-reality based thinking will distance you from fully knowing the Love, Life, and Energy God Is and You are. Ego medicine works to connect you to your human truth and allows for the doors to Divine Truth to fully open.
Ego Medicine anyone?
Namaste’
How Old are You Really?
How Old are You Really?:
This appears to be a rather simple and unimportant question to ponder. The kind of question that belongs on the bottom of one’s “to do” list, never to be gotten to in favor of more immediate concerns. However, the implications to one’s answer are rather large. The difference between seeing part of the picture of your life or all of it. A difference in which you are mostly seeing the human side of you and your life while ignoring, minimizing, over-looking the spiritual side, keeping you firmly in the “little picture” of what you and life have to offer.
We often think of our age and life as directly connected to our birthday. A day when the human clock starts to tick and we begin to count the days, weeks, and years that comprise this life and for some, our only life. This can be helpful as a reference point within the human realm pertaining to normative development (for whatever that means) within the physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects of our human experience. Unfortunately, health, aging, and mortality can become aspects of life with which we can be consumed when imbalanced ego energy is at work doing its “job” to ensure our daily and mortal survival by leading us towards the thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and physiology we use unknowingly to accomplish this task. An ego which does not know anything about “before birth” or “after death” or anything about “God” and the Divine energy woven into our being. Hence, its intense efforts to enhance our human life which often brings suffering sooner or later. Suffering which can be subtle as Buddha referred to it, which you may not immediately recognize and which ego cannot recognize owing to the absence of intellect and intention within this energy. Suffering often reflected within the mismanagement of our health, aging, and mortality leading to a lower quality of life and a lesser version of you.
You will need to “teach” ego that there is more to you and life, if you so choose. But what would you teach it? First and foremost, you would need to teach ego that you are the product of a three million year design. You have the wisdom of the ages built into your being. A design and wisdom standing upon the foundation that God Is – Love, Life, Energy, and You, which has been there every step of the way, leading to your current existence and future ones. A foundation upon which we can recognize and manifest the Great Gifts of Life, Creating Life, Eternal Life, and God Within, today and everyday no matter how old we are. Each addressing any unnecessary concerns and suffering connected to health, aging, or mortality rooted in our ego energy. It is the design in which we can fully embrace our health, aging, and mortality and our current human age, rather than looking for answers (often egoically induced) in the wrong people, places, or methods. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You 60 is not the new 40, or 50 the new 30. 60 is 60, 50 is 50 and so on. Each age we are is wonderful when we embrace our design and the wisdom of the ages which is available to us. Would you like an example of this design at work? Consider meditation. It’s free, can involve as little as 5 minutes a day, does not require any particular time, place, or other person to do, and it works. A peaceful stillness in which the wisdom of the ages allows us to engage in self-healing.
Again, how old are you really?
Namaste’
The Misunderstood Ego and You
The Misunderstood Ego and You:
We have read many works in which the topic of ego has come forth. Particularly, those representations of ego put forth by more prominent and less prominent writers within the “spiritual”, “self-improvement”, and “New Age” genres. There are several common themes which though well-intended only serve to create distance from knowing ego and consequently ourselves. These include descriptions of ego suggesting it has an intentional quality, an intellectual quality, an awareness of what it is doing in your life, and an awareness of “God” in which it seeks to act in direct opposition.
From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You, ego is none of these. Ego does not have an intentional quality and does not impact us with volition. Though it is an energy which can bring suffering into our lives as the energy becomes imbalanced. Ego does not have an intellectual quality and has no awareness of itself, though you can develop an awareness of this energy. Ego has no awareness of any suffering (mental, emotional, behavioral, or physical) it has led you into within your life as its primary purpose is to ensure your survival, daily and mortal. Ego has no awareness of God or the Divine Energy within you. It operates as if there is only ego and you. Hence, its incredible and intensive “efforts” to ensure your survival. It is up to you to “teach” ego that there is more which comes about when you employmental medicine involving greater ego awareness and ego related reality based thinking. This brings you closer to human truth as well as the Divine Truth that God Is- Love, Life, Energy, and You. This is the means to which your ego can heal where needed in its power, flexibility, or vulnerability and “relinquish” its intense purpose to ensure your survival.
Recently, we completed reading I Can See Clearly Now by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Dr. Dyer has been a great servant to humanity. He has written, spoken, and traveled tirelessly in an effort to raise the spiritual consciousness of people across the world. His book The Power of Intention is an incredibly brilliant work on spiritual consciousness and the one we would most highly recommend to those seeking to raise their spiritual consciousness. However, we were struck by the frequent references to “taming” ego within his most current book. From the perspective ofEgo, Spirit & You we can never tame ego, we can only work to heal it. Some might suggest that using the word tame rather than heal is only a matter of semantics. We disagree. The taming of ego implies all of the misunderstandings about ego we mentioned earlier. We can only heal the ego when we understand its true nature. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You we must awaken both humanly and spiritually.
So what do you think? Do we tame ego or do we heal it?
Namaste’
What is the Most Important Relationship?
What is the Most Important Relationship?:
As we walk along the path of our lives we experience many relationships. These include relationships with our parents, siblings, spouse/partner, children, friends, co-workers, teachers, and “God”. Each provides an opportunity to grow and experience meaning as well as pain and suffering. But which is the most important? From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You the answer isn’t on that list. It’s the relationship you have with yourself. Many of you probably saw that coming, but we have encountered many people who spend their lives often “suffering” while trying to please others, receive acceptance and approval from others which never comes, prove something to others which doesn’t need to be proved, or trying to become someone they think others want them to be, within a journey that never ends. Many can be found within the “Roles People Live” page on our website.
Our answer is based on the belief that the relationship with ourselves is the relationship upon which all of the others are built, for better or worse. It shapes healthy or unhealthy thoughts, behaviors, and feelings we bring to others in these relationships. Some may say the relationship with God is even more important. Our response is that the ego energy we are impacts our ability to be the manifestation of the Love, Life, and Energy God Is, within every relationship, including the one we perceive as existing with God. When our ego energy is imbalanced within its power, flexibility, or vulnerability, the seeds for distortion, disturbance, and destruction in all relationships have been sown. No better example can be found than the person who professes love for God, yet lives anger and destructiveness toward those who do not comply with their likeness, religiously, racially, politically, sexually, and so on.
Many realize the relationship with themselves is the most important relationship but don’t know how to go about developing that relationship in order to become the best version of themselves which can be lived within all of the other relationships. From the perspective of Ego, Spirit & You the solution involves getting to know your ego energy and working to bring it into balance withego medicine. It is with ego medicine that we develop more precise ego awareness and use reality based thinking to remove distortions that often weaken the relationship with ourselves and others. As we work with it the voice of Spirit becomes louder and we begin to “hear” it telling us we are the Love, Life, and Energy God Is within human form. We also grow in our ability to recognize the Great Gifts of Life, Creating Life, Eternal Life, and God Within which all have received.
So how is your relationship with yourself?
Namaste’