If you have been a student of spirituality long enough, you surely have heard of the necessity of “annihilation” or “suppression” of the ego. If you wish to open up or expand your consciousness, they say, you have to “let it go” so you can finally step into the realms of enlightenment.

Instead of infusing in us a greater desire to advance in the practice of our spirituality, this idea ends up brewing many new internal conflicts. After all, we have a deep identification with our ego. It is as if, when we are constantly pressured to “let the ego go”, there is a threat of losing our reason for existing. This ends up causing great rigidity not only concerning this part of our psyche but also with the process of expanding consciousness itself.

The ego is not the enemy of the soul. It is simply part of who we are.

The ego is a psychic structure that allows us to function in the world, protect ourselves, mediate our exchanges with the environment and with the deepest levels of the mind. It is like a shell that protects the sprout until it is ready to blossom. And in this long process of blossoming, possible only through contact with our deepest self, the ego works as a guardian, preventing everything that the mind understands as external threats from hurting us. In addition, it works as a containment barrier so that the deep waters of the unconscious do not overflow.

Its development starts very early, in the first three years of life. This is why, despite being responsible for our autonomy, discernment, and organization in the world, for differentiating us from others and making positive choices, it is also calculating, excessively attached to the mind, and focused on its own interests. It fears the unknown for fear of discomfort, prefers to repeat patterns, and ignores that it is the vulnerability of openness to the new that drives us to evolve. In itself, it is not good or bad; it only does what it has to do so we can develop our sense of self. To keep us safe and allow us to develop with a minimum of integrity.

The problem is that we identify too much with our ego. We get attached to it like it is all that we are.

We ignore the fact that the ego is also a bridge to the Higher Self, the part of us that connects us to wholeness. And when we allow it to become the sole narrator of our story, it imprisons us.

It pushes into the depths of the mind everything it would rather not be faced.

It builds armor when the soul wants wings.

The ego doesn’t know how to surrender. He is too busy trying to direct our lives and refuses to step into what makes us vulnerable – like love, genuine joy, or creativity. Such things spring from the Higher Self. And to cross that bridge, we need to reeducate the ego. It’s not about annihilation – it’s a re-alignment with its superior qualities of discernment, self-observation, and self-awareness.

Understand that the ego is not the totality of who we are, but a pathway to our inner truths, often ignored or unknown.

On the path to self-awareness, the ego needs to be welcomed. To be embraced as a guardian, but never be seen as the one to guide the flight.

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