A “Present” to You to Help Keep the Ego Quiet | VictorSchueller.com

“When the ego is quieted, then the soul can truly emerge and you can be the being you were meant to be in this lifetime.” ~Jeanette Dobransky

My younger daughter is three and a half years old now…How time absolutely flies!  One of the things I enjoy most about my time with her is her youthful enthusiasm and vigor.  Like I often say, “Everything she says is a ‘proclamation.'”  She wears her heart on her sleeves, and she is a passionate young girl.  I just love that about her — the passion in her eyes and in her voice.

One thing I have also noticed about this sensitive soul is that she cares a great deal about what other people think.  It’s not unusual for her to remark as we get her dressed in the morning about how people are going to think the clothes she wears are going to “look funny” or how “people are going to laugh” at her outfit.  For the life of me, I don’t get where this comes from, because we certainly don’t discuss those things or encourage that type of thinking in our home.  From such a young age she has shown this concern about the future.

To me, the most remarkable part of it all is the early stage in which the ego takes hold — she had to have been showing this side at around the time she turned three years old.  I just never would have thought that it would manifest itself that early.  It just goes to show that the conscious mind starts to take hold at an early age, and unless we awaken to what it does within us, it may never surrender its control over us!

As I had mentioned in a previous post, the ego loves time travel.  The ego loves to live in the past and the future.  After all, it is only in the past and the future that the ego can survive in the first place.  The ego loves to rub our noses in our mistakes and difficulties of the past — it loves to remind us of our insufficiencies and shortcomings.  It loves to make us feel uncomfortable about our inadequacies, doesn’t it?  The ego also loves to “scare” us about our future…Even if the future looks bright, we have that nagging voice somewhere inside, reminding us that it’s only when things are going great that we are hit with an unexpected setback or unfortunate incident.  “We can’t be happy for long,” it reminds us.

So, now that we’ve developed some great reasons for why the ego doesn’t do us any good, let’s look at what we can do to keep it a bit quieter, or to just shut it up for once.  One of the easiest ways to shut the ego down is to stop living out the past and stop obsessing and worrying about the future.  Remember, the ego doesn’t exist in the present.

The focus in quieting the ego is to live in the present — to enjoy the now, and let the now rule your daily activities.  Don’t worry about what happened in the past or what may happen in the future.  Give your full attention to the now.

Now, you may be thinking, “Sure, Victor, this sounds so great, but it’s not that easy, especially for me, who needs a little guidance in how to make this happen.”  I understand, and even more, I can help provide you with the guidance you seek! 🙂  It’s a nifty little trick, and it’s easy to do!  It’s all about what I call “prayers.”

Many times, when we “pray,” we throw out a “hope” for something to happen (or not happen) in the future, right?  We “pray” by saying something like, “Please give me the strength to stand up to people when they are negative.”  This is a great “hope,” but let me ask you this — by asking for something to occur in the future, are you staying in the present, or are you providing your ego with the chance to step in and sabotage your hope and prayer, simply by suggesting how the negativity will get to you eventually?  In case you hadn’t figured it out, of course this is playing into the ego’s hands.

That’s the “problem,” if you want to call it that, with praying for something to happen in the future.  It serves the ego.  Instead of praying for something to (or not to) happen, may I suggest an alternative that quiets the ego and lets it know it is not welcome anymore…

Try one of these:

“I love it when I feel confident in myself even though I am surrounded by negativity.”

“I am so grateful I can pass along love and compassion to others who seem to need it from me.”

“I enjoy the opportunity to find solutions to problems and let my true greatness shine though.”

“I love how I feel when I allow my inner greatness to rise to the surface and shine out toward others.”

“I feel confident in myself and I love myself, and I love how it feels when I love myself and believe in myself.”

They don’t sound like “prayers,” but they are — they are prayers that help you stay in the present, and avoid feeding the ego.  The last thing the ego wants is for you to dissolve it or render it useless.  It’s going to kick and scream until you give it attention — it wants you to beat yourself up over mistakes of the past, or obsess and worry about what may happen in the future.

Stay in the present; love the present; love who you are in the present.  Continue to let the greatness that resides within you come through!  You are great, and by remaining present in your prayer, you will have the opportunity to bask in the love you have for yourself.  Love who you are first, and the rest of the world around you doesn’t matter.

Let your greatness shine through!  You are great, so remind yourself in the present how great you are!  Let your light shine!