Those of you familiar with my work know that I have written extensively about the two distinct parts of our being – our true higher selves and our ego.
The two have vastly different interests and that contributes greatly to our ongoing unhappiness. The higher-self is only concerned, or for that matter even aware of, it’s place in alignment with the whole, the greater good, and love.
The ego on the other hand is only concerned with preserving itself and our illusion of separateness from each other and the universe.
Quantum physics has shown us that everything, including that which we perceive as solid matter, is really only energy vibrating at different frequencies. You perceive your table as solid because the sub-atomic particles it is made of are vibrating at a rate that your consciousness perceives as solid. It is in fact only energy.
Everything has a vibrational frequency including thoughts an emotions. The higher order thoughts and emotions like love, service, forgiveness, vibrate at a much different rate than the lower order set such as jealousy, anger, violence and hatred. Our consciousness perceives these vibrational rates and transmutes them into a sense of peacefulness and well-being or unhappiness and discontent.
Let’s shift gears. I’m sure you have noticed that on the occasions that you choose to smile at a stranger, or help them retrieve something they have dropped, or offer your place in line that this creates a sense of peace and happiness in you. Even amidst all the constant chatter and judging coming from your internal dialog (aka the voice in your head). So then the question is, why don’t you treat strangers in this way ALL the time if it feels so good?
The answer is ego.
Usually the way it happens is you see a stranger approaching – on the street, an elevator, the grocery isle, and something in you gives you the impulse to smile at that person. Or you’re in the toll booth and the thought arises in you to pay the toll for the car behind you. But you don’t. You don’t because that voice in your head (ego) starts quacking at you, “What if they don’t smile back? What if they think I’m weird? What if they don’t appreciate what I did?”
The ego cannot tolerate any of those responses from the stranger because it diminishes it’s sense of itself. It lessens it. Remember the ego’s sole purpose is to preserve and defend itself at all costs. So it convinces you not to smile, not to help, not to share. And while your ego may not diminish as a result, your happiness will. That’s the price tag. Is it worth it?
So there is a decision to be made. Will you allow your ego to rule the day by offering you safety in the moment? Or will you step out on the precarious limb, where you are truly alive, and take a step up the vibrational ladder, hand in hand with the intentions of your higher-self?
The process of awakening to your true nature demands of you the latter.
Contemplate this… I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me. As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.
So the next time you feel that impulse to smile at, help, share, pay for, or connect with another human being (much better description than ‘stranger’) and the voice in your head starts offering up all the reasons you shouldn’t – ignore it.
Step out of the false comfort zone (prison) your ego has built for you and into the authentic freedom of sharing yourself with another. Therein lies the real power.
~Edward G. Dunn
Check out the podcast episode…
Check out the Happiness 2.0 Podcast – https://podcast.edwardgdunn.com/
