Photo by h.koppdelaney

The other day I was swimming in our building’s pool. After a few minutes, I noticed a stranger get into the pool and start to swim next to me. I am not sure why, but I instinctively felt the need to swim faster. After two quicker laps, I started to wonder what I was doing and how silly I was being. What had suddenly made me behave this way? My ego.

That’s what makes us feel slighted when our kids don’t necessary follow our instructions, feel upset when our colleagues give us critical feedback, or experience envy at a friend’s success.

Ego

Fundamentally, ego is a misplaced sense of self. In denial of who we truly are, ego exaggerates our sense of importance as a separate entity. It overlooks our reality as an integral part of an interconnected cosmic consciousness. Because we see ourselves in isolation of everything else, we naturally consider it our primary goal to protect and enhance ourselves.

As we grow up, the ego arising from this sense of separation gets further corrupted. Unable to emotionally cope with life’s challenges, we build a shield of unhealthy ego to protect our vulnerabilities. We show off to establish our importance; avoid an argument to protect ourselves from the risk of being disliked; and judge others to protect and enhance our self-image.

Ego is central to unhappiness

Ego makes us self-absorbed. We become too attached to the ideas of ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine. We obsess about benefitting from all our actions. This is a key source of stress in our life. Since we cannot control all outcomes, results that differ from our desires routinely create anxiety, anger and sadness.

Besides, we take everything personally. We perceive our lucky breaks as a product of our smarts and the unfavourable events as a reflection of our limitations. This further bruises our emotional well-being. Obsessed with our individuality and free will, we fail to recognize the role of cosmic intelligence in…

Photo by h.koppdelaney

Do you struggle with anxiety, fear, self-doubt, guilt or envy? I continue to – although nowadays perhaps with greater awareness. Anxiety about the impact children’s certain traits may have on their future, judging others and myself harshly, aversion to setbacks, fear of social disapproval, attachment to favourable outcomes, or even the unending doubts about my swing on the golf course!

Key human challenge

Any strongly felt negative emotions are our inner demons. We all have our fair share of them. They collectively operate like a convincing inner voice that significantly influences our every day thoughts and behavior. A majority of our inner demons are inborn. It’s kind of our karmic imprint. With childhood and other life experiences, they evolve. However, unless we consciously work towards resolving them, they continue to haunt us.

One of the key reasons we are unable to shake them off is that we are simply caught up in our outer and visible life. We pay disproportionate attention to our material growth and strongly identify with that progress. In the process, we loose sight of the inner journey – the need and the opportunity to reform our inner selves. Besides, we obsess about how we are perceived by others. We routinely judge others and in turn worry about being judged by our peers and social network.

While material progress is important, it’s not the core purpose of life. Alongside playing various visible roles at work, home and in our community, we have a deeper purpose to fulfil. It is to overcome our personal inner demons and to steadily replace them with courage, trust, love, compassion and mindfulness; and through that, discover our true potential for living a happy, balanced and meaningful life.

Impact on effectiveness

Our professional and personal effectiveness is directly and negatively impacted by the hold these inner demons have on our mental make-up. Elite sports psychologists repeatedly highlight that performance equals potential minus interference. True in life too. Our mental…

Photo by h.koppdelaney

We all possess enormous innate wisdom. Our bodies are a living example of this intelligence in action. How our heart beats 24/7 providing essential fuel to all parts of our body; how our digestive system digests foods its never been exposed to and yet breaks them down to their key nutrients; and how the egg fertilises into a human baby in a mother’s womb.

In our everyday busyness, we are largely disconnected from this intelligence. We live in our minds, not in our bodies. We chase after acquiring the latest information about the external world, but generally lack awareness of the miraculous intelligence that resides within.

Thriving community within

Concealed beneath our individual persona is a thriving community of over 30 trillion cells. Each of these cells is a living being, with its own life and defined role. Importantly, each cell lives an highly evolved life, while meaningfully contributing to the broader community of cells constituting the human body.

Reading Deepak Chopra’s The book of secrets recently, I was reminded of the insightful revelations of this community. We can learn an awful lot from our body’s innate wisdom residing in these cells. Here are six key lessons that maybe worth contemplating.

1. Healthy coexistence

Every cell of our body exists in complete harmony with all other cells. Each cell also realises that its existence is dependent entirely on the healthy survival of every other cell. If some of the brain cells become dysfunctional, it impacts the rest of the body; likewise, unhealthy liver cells impact the digestive system, which in turn can lead to many illnesses. Most notably, each cell considers and treats every other cell as an equal, without any hierarchy or bias.

We start life as dependents, relying on our parents, and become more independent as young adults. However, we don’t always make the wise move to becoming interdependent – we remain too self-centered in our independent self. We need to discover our higher self where we are grateful for everyone else’ contribution in our…