The ego can most easily be described as the mask you wear in daily life.
The real you, hidden beneath all the layers you have put on, wants to reveal itself, but the ego likes to maintain control at all times. It can’t stand to give up its power over you, and sadly, many people never move beyond the ego’s domain in their lifetime. If you have felt like you’re in a constant war with your own mind, your ego might feel threatened by your higher self.
Here are 8 signs to look out for if you think your ego is trying to sabotage you:
Do any of these behaviors sound familiar to you?
1. You have become very self-destructive.
Thoughts of self-hate regularly enter your brain, and you have turned to compulsive habits such as drinking or smoking. The ego comes from a place of darkness, and to tame it is one of the most difficult tasks a human will face in his or her lifetime. It fears giving up control, so it wants to keep you in a low vibrational state at all times to avoid transparency. So, if you have picked up on destructive habits and demeaning thought patterns about yourself, you can almost be sure the ego is the mastermind behind it all.
2. You feel overly self-conscious around others.
The ego doesn’t always make a grand entrance; sometimes, it likes to take a more subtle approach. Self-destructive habits can also include feeling a lack of self-confidence, but this doesn’t seem as apparent as the former. However, the ego is still likely to blame, because it always wants you to second-guess yourself and rely on things outside your consciousness for contentment. However, once you move into your heart and act on love rather than fear, you will slowly see this behavior dissipate.
3. You find yourself complaining often.
The ego loves to find everything wrong with a situation or person, so it harps on all the atrocities and misfortunes in life on a daily basis. Complaining every once in a while is a part of life, but if you catch yourself seeing the glass half-empty more than you normally would, try to look inside and tell your ego that all is well, and it doesn’t have to worry.
4. You point out the negatives in your life before the positives.
Becoming a Negative Nancy can happen without you ever noticing this shift in consciousness, because the ego moves very slyly. It likes to go undetected and work in the background so as not to draw too much attention to itself. Looking at the world negatively reflects your vibration, so if you want to start noticing the positive aspects of life, work on taming the ego and feeding your soul instead.
5. Fights and arguments happen frequently between yourself and others.
Like we’ve said before, the ego doesn’t enjoy being wrong, and gets wounded easily if it doesn’t get its way. If you constantly have to get the last word in and can’t stand for others to be right, your ego is definitely trying to interfere with your life.
6. You judge others harshly.
This sort of goes along with seeing the negative in the world, but judging others is actually just a reflection of yourself. How you see yourself, you will see others, so if you want to start noticing the good in people, you must first realize the positive things about yourself.
7. You find it hard to listen to others without wanting to interrupt.
When the ego rules, it doesn’t know how to meet others halfway. It works using a “my way, or the highway” approach, so allowing others to speak and have the attention on them really scares the ego. It doesn’t take well to giving others the time of day, so if you find it difficult to let other people speak without wanting to interject, your ego is clearly dominating your energy.
8. You seek revenge when others hurt you.
The ego needs to get even when it feels pain, so what does it do? Try to destroy others, of course. It survives by tearing you down and tearing others down, so to stay alive, it must always hurt others. The Ego feeds off pain and destruction, but that doesn’t mean it is necessarily bad. You must learn to use it for good and not evil, just like a superhero would do. They all have incredible powers but must use them wisely for the benefit of themselves and humanity as a whole.
