Letting go of the Ego

I was given this book a week ago, and last night I couldn't put it down. I started thinking about the desires of human nature. Why some people connect and and some people don't, and what happens when we let our ego/fears take over our thoughts. In Broken Open, there is a chapter written about Ram Dass. If you have never heard of him, he was an infamous professor at Harvard who got fired for the research he was doing with Timothy Leary. He's written many books on the relationship between psychological well being, staying present in your life, and reaching a higher understanding of the human process. He had a stroke and when asked by a friend about his life before and after the stroke, he said "Before...- happy grace... love grace... good things kept happening to me. Then the stroke... lose things..." and when asked what he lost he said, "Ego. Ego gone Nothing more to lose. Ego breaks open- then you see who you really are." This stopped me in my tracks because I believe it is so true. I can get wrapped up into my own ego-- I believe everyone can. Ego is often driven by fear. In relationships, careers, family... when we get into our ego we stop being authentic to who we are and start trying to prove something. In my yoga class, my teacher often tells us to leave our egos at the door before stepping onto our mat, because the minute we get into our egos, we stop being ourselves on the mat, and that's when you get hurt. In relationships, I often talk myself out of them, because my ego starts to tell me "don't get hurt, don't get hurt." In my career, I often get fearful of the rejection, so therefore I stop myself before I ever really get involved. It's terrible and it's not a way to really be in life. But, as soon as you are aware of how you let your ego control you, you can choose not to give into it and make a conscious effort to shut it up! You can't be so afraid of letting people really see you, that you never show them who you are. After all, people just want to be seen and really seen and loved anyway, despite their scars, flaws and fears. Because after all that is the best thing, when someone sees you for everything you are and loves you anyway. There's safety in that. The other day, my mom told me that she was having a conversation with a friend here in Colorado and she asked the question, "What would love do?" My mom told me about this question, and I thought, love certainly wouldn't be moving out of fear. No, when moving from a standpoint of love and only love your fears subside and there's only room to whole-heartedly give of yourself, without expectation, without fear of rejection, and without trying to create a certain outcome. There is freedom in letting go of the outcome and again, this applies to all aspects of life! When you aren't trying to make something happen and you move from your heart, often everything falls into place.

I just wanted to share that with all of you! Because, it definitely made me think about things from a different standpoint.
When you move from love, not from your ego it becomes very simple. Love is simple. It just is.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!