Let me wax on again now about the ways in which your ego can intoxicate you. You may think you’re “happy” or “in love” or “successful” but in fact your ego is just experiencing a little high. You’re UIE—Under the Influence of Ego!
How to Know if You’re Ego Intoxicated:
- Your high is followed by a low
- The “happiness” doesn’t last
- Trying to maintain your “happiness” causes suffering to yourself or others
- Your “joy” stems from feeling special and/or superior to other people
Possible Ego Intoxicants:
I actually just realized this whole list is almost the same as my ego disguises list—ego disguises and ego intoxicants are closely related, it turns out! (Ego disguises lists can be found here and on my Know Thy Ego worksheet)
- Money
- Power
- Sex
- Work
- Anything you’re identified with/obsessed with/attached to, including thoughts, emotions, and beliefs
- Roles/titles
- Drugs and alcohol
- Anything used to forget about your unhappy self—including TV/movies, romance novels, etc
- Labels that make you feel superior – good person, wealthy, Christian, etc.
- Social media!
- Romantic “love”/attraction
- Making other people wrong
- Scrolling
- Online shopping
- Fortune telling/future prediction
- Relationships
- Your kids’ achievements
- Success
- Things
- Your appearance (when you’re young and beautiful)
- Your clothes
- Your House
- Your Car
- Vacations/travel
- The future (hopes and dreams)
- The past (Happy memories)
- Your wedding
- Parties
- Nightclubs/dance clubs
- Getting something you want
- Shopping
- Your sports team winning
- Your political party winning
- Your country dominating others
- Your Talents/skills
- Being the best or better than others at anything
- Things you pride your self in
- Awards, accolades, achievements
- Adrenaline-producing activities
- Flirting
- Any kind of attention seeking
- Fantasy
- Pride
- Gossip
- Winning/dominating
- Your intellect
Ego Intoxicants Disguised as Negativity:
The ego gets pumped up even by negativity.
Anything that empowers the ego is ego intoxication.
This is just a sampling of the negative things that can intoxicate your ego (and/or your pain body):
- Failure
- Beating oneself up
- Negative self talk
- Shame
- Projection
- Blame
- The past (unhappy memories)
- The future (fears and trepidations)
- Anger
- Fear
- False sense of control (all sense of control is false, btw)
- Manipulating and dominating others
- Lack of trust in the benevolence of the Universe
- Your appearance (as you get older!)
- Labels that make you feel inferior – loser, bad dancer, poor, ugly, etc.
So, what’s left? You may ask.
What’s left is the Truth. The only One Reality, which is God/Source/Life/Being/Consciousness/divine Peace/real Love/Oneness. That is where you should be resting, not in the transience of your unobserved mind, aka your ego. There is no Truth without God/Source/Life/Being/Consciousness/divine Peace/real Love/Oneness. Divine Will is the only will. The rest is just egoic posturing.
Learning to connect to the Being/Source dimension is our main goal in Ego Rehab. This is much easier once we understand that those noisy thoughts and voices in our head aren’t really us. Find the practices in your life that bring you true Peace—the Peace that has no opposite—and cultivate those. It’s helpful to have people around you who are on the same path. That’s what Ego Rehab is all about. We’re getting over our “selves” together! We’re getting “sober” (from our ego-minds) together!
I do envision Ego Rehab eventually including virtual as well as real in-person communities and support groups. Also an Ego Rehab social network and app to keep you OUT of your ego—now there’s a novelty! 😜🌟
