Ask: What are your thoughts on the idea of a "healthy ego"?

 “Over the years, I’ve heard the term ‘healthy ego’ what are your thoughts about this? Is there such a thing?” – ESA 

Ego is not real, so from Spirit’s perspective, there is no answer to this. But within the framework of its false reality, an ego’s state of health ranges from extreme mental illness up to spiritual self-realization, Bill Thetford being a good example of the latter for students of A Course in Miracles. So, in short, yes there is such a thing as a “healthy ego”, but it’s a relative, never an absolute, thing.

Psychologically speaking, a healthy ego is one that has a sound sense of self-worth without being overblown and adjusts to the world as it is. A healthy ego deals with the stresses of life without falling apart. In fact, a healthy ego grows through crises. A well-adjusted adult ego holds a job, takes care of their self, and has functional, balanced relationships. When thrown off balance, a well-adjusted ego eventually rebalances and will ask for help in this if necessary.

It does seem that one needs to have a somewhat healthy ego to let Spirit into their awareness, because if their self-esteem is too low, they may not feel worthy of Spirit’s Presence and guidance. A true relationship with Spirit results in an increasingly healthy ego and facilitates maturity, in fact seems to cause one to mature more quickly than they would without it.

From the perspective of the Course, a healthy ego takes responsibility for its projections of meaning and deals with them where they occur, in the mind. As one does this, one comes to realize that the world that they must adjust to is in their mind, not “out there.” The “awakening” that the Course leads to is ego’s awareness of the reality of God and acceptance of one’s place in the Atonement. One persistently addresses the “darker” side of ego and develops an increasingly healthy ego, resulting in less stressful perceptions and a sense that one always has recourse to answers to life’s dilemmas (ego’s perceptions) in Spirit. 

>>>> 

If you have a question the answer to which you feel may be helpful to others, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in this newsletter/blog.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Committed to the Spiritual Process

If you’ve been reading my blog/newsletter for the past few weeks then you know significant things have occurred in the life of this mind. Four years ago the ego (personal thought system) fell away. I didn’t realize it fully and I spent three and a half years personally in a rather barren place in this mind, though there was peace in the rest of my mind. I did feel done with the world, but I didn’t know what that meant. I just stayed with the feeling, wondering what would come next. The next thing arrived in this mind last summer with a subtle shift from emptiness to a delicious Spaciousness. This was followed by beautiful Golden Light, Love, and Joy filling the Space. Bewilderingly, an effect of this was a romance novel! From there, the Light and the shifts continued. During this time a client in Australia whom I have called Zelda in these articles, but whose real name is Hannah, became a friend as well. We grew closer over several months and began to experience a lot of sync...
Read more

Ask: What is meant by "extend Love"?

I wonder exactly what is meant by "extend love" or how one extends love. Is it a loving intention toward the person, or a wish for them, or what? Can you give an example? – JO “Extending love” means replacing unloving thoughts in your mind with the awareness of Love in your mind. For example, your peace of mind is disturbed while watching something on television. Your peace is gone because you believe that what you see is reality. You extend Love in this situation by turning inward to Truth (God), feeling Love’s Presence within you, and remembering that It, not the images appearing, is What is Real. It may take you a while to accept that only your own thoughts cause you pain. So at first you may feel that you need to extend Love “out there” to the images that seem to be causing you pain. Or you may extend Love to another who is sharing their painful story with you. You can do this by imagining the situation or the person in a Loving Light. Or you may use some other image to ...
Read more

Evolving Practice with ACIM

           The Course was dictated to two who had a sense of Spirit working in their lives. After all, they were taking down the Course itself! The Universal Christ Mind sought to develop and grow their awareness of Spirit through the lessons in the Workbook as well as simply in discussion with them, privately and through the Course . And for those who find the Course and already have an awareness of Spirit, even if only dimly, the Course functions in the same way. Through the practice suggested, they develop their trust in Spirit. But for many who come to the Course , the discernment of Spirit within has not yet occurred. For them, practice is the means of opening to the awareness and experience of Spirit. Those who do not understand this often feel frustrated and even angry with the Course for suggesting that they should be having experiences that they do not yet have. They feel that they fall short when they read the instructions and descriptions ...
Read more