“The ego is a prison you have built around yourself, and now it holds you captive within its walls”
Humans have a need to be social. We need to feel others respect us. We get our self worth based on how we perceive others perceive us. This causes us to interpret the world in a way which will not hurt our ego. We tend to look for things that rationalize our behaviors and make us feel good about ourselves. Many times that interpretation is wrong.
You are playing a game with the entire world. Sometimes it can be enjoyable and fun, but most of the time it’s hard and complicated. Your ego loves playing the game. It loves comparing itself to others to see who is winning. To see who has the most money. To see who has the most power. To see who is the best. To see who is happier. To see who is making the most out of their life. Every person you meet your ego is sizing them up. Deciding who is ahead in the game. But here is the catch. We may make the comparisons but we constantly feel we are losing…
We come into this world and we have agreed to so many things which are just not true. These agreements are making our lives much more complicated than they need to be. We have agreed because the majority have told us this is how it is. This is not how it is.
Living is not this tawdry, mediocre, disciplined thing which we call our existence. Living is something entirely different; it is abundantly rich, timelessly changing, and as long as we don’t understand that eternal movement, our lives are bound to have very little meaning.
Children look to parents and other authority figures for security in an unfamiliar world. This in turn causes neural pathways to develop in patterns similar to the parent or authority figure. This is why children for the most part develop the same beliefs as their parents. Most live out their entire life and never question beliefs accepted as a child.
For the most part your brain was wired when you were a child. You may think you have come to conclusions on your own, but your brain has been conditioned to see the world in such a way as to support conclusions that were given to you by your parents and society when you were very young. Did your childhood limit how you see the world?
As a child we live in a world of miracles and magic. As we become adults the world loses its astonishment as we interact more and more with the harshness of society and the miracles and magic begin to fade. It does not have to. In fact it should be the exact opposite. The magic should increase but we were not told as a child how to keep the magic alive.
Most have been taught incorrectly. They have been taught how to achieve. They have not been taught how to enjoy life.
The tendency is to believe that if the majority believes it, it must be true. When in fact the opposite is usually the case. Chances are you would have been one of the ones who believed the earth was flat :-).
What if you could look inside yourself and find the answer to any question you have ever had? Now wouldn’t that be a life changer? So what are you waiting for? Get in there.
Question Everything. Most of your beliefs were given to you by others. Until you begin questioning you are not living your own life. Be honest with yourself. Are you living the life you want to live? If you are like most you are living a life others have created for you.
One of the best things you can ever do for yourself is just take 15 minutes a day and concentrate on your breathing. Slow it down. Breathe in 1, 2, 3… Breathe out 1,2,3,4,5… You will be amazed at what happens.
And do let me know any comments or questions you might have. Share them with me!
With kind regards,
Dieter Langenecker
The yardstick of success is not measured by fame and wealth;
it is measured by your level of understanding of who you are,
why you are here and where are you going from here.
-Tulshi Sen
