The Ego (The Thinker)

The Thinker is the part of your brain that uses words to tell stories about who you are. It likes to talk about what you did yesterday or what you are worried about for tomorrow. Sometimes it tells you that you are the best, and sometimes it says you are not good enough. It is like a busy radio station that never stops playing music and talking. But remember, you are the person listening to the radio, not the radio itself. You can turn the volume down whenever you want.

You are the person listening to the radio not the radio itself. The ego is the narrator. It talks all day. It says you are great. Then it says you are terrible. Then it says you should have said something different at dinner three years ago. It never stops. But here is the secret: the narrator is not you. You are the one who hears the narrator. And anything you can hear is not you — it is a sound you are receiving. The ego is a useful employee. It keeps your calendar. It remembers your name. It organizes your story. But it is a terrible boss. When the employee runs the company, the company panics. When you remember you are the owner — the listener — the volume goes down. And in the quiet, you find the person who was there before the radio turned on.

The Ego as Default Mode Network construct: a narrative of self-continuity that, when over-identified with, produces psychological suffering. The ego is a useful employee but a terrible boss. You are the owner — the listener.

SOUND: A busy playground with many voices shouting at once: the sound of the ego's open tabs.

SMELL: A freshly peeled onion — sharp and biting: the scent of something that makes you react before you think.

TASTE: A sour lemon that makes your whole face scrunch: the ego's favorite trick — making you believe the reaction IS you.

TOUCH: A scratchy wool sweater that makes you restless: discomfort the ego narrates into a crisis.

SIGHT: A mirror where you see your own reflection: the ego's favorite screen — the one that shows its own face.

BODY: Clenching your jaw and feeling the tension: the ego storing its stories in your muscles.

Music: Shape Of My Heart by Sting

Music: Losing Sleep by Wyatt Flores

Music: Hero by Mariah Carey

Part of The Observer & Awareness — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation