OK a bit selfish today: I would like to advocate being selective in the kinds of things you chose to feed your ego with. From the most bad ass to the most meek we all enjoy positive outcomes for ourselves, but not all situations are good for people on a larger scale, and it is these kinds of situations that I recommend starving your ego, just a bit. For example: Your cut off in traffic, and the person doing so has the wherewithal to flip you the bird while doing so, you then seconds later see the blue lights and the offending driver is promptly pulled over. I think most people will feel ( to some degree) good about the aforementioned outcome, it is a natural response ( I think) to feel good when someone who wronged us is punished. HOWEVER this is what I equate to ego junk food, it’s just hollow, nothing good really happened here. The person who flipped you off is having a bad time, is most likely suffering and taking pleasure in the suffering of others (while a popular source of ego food) is FAR inferior to other sources.
So I’ll start with what these other sources are, then I’ll hit why I think them to be better. A good deed, done for no reason other than desire for a better world; This is my bread and butter I speak from experience when I say that it provides far more gratification than watching a “bad” person suffer. Simple examples: picking up messes that you have no responsibility for, engaging people is people not just means to an end, letting someone know their car lights have been left on or windows have been left down in the rain ext…
Another tasty ego treat is doing “good” work, which is time spent working on something that you truly believe to be good. For most of us this does NOT include our profession, if you work for puppies for orphans or similar beneficent organization then yes by all means feast away! But most of us work at for profit enterprises, and while we might be doing some good, the real focus is usually the bottom line, and making people who have a lot of money more money is not ( at least for me) palatable.
Now why speak of this? What if any difference does it make if one gets a good laugh of someone getting kicked in the nuts vs. laughing at not being bitten or stung by anything when walking bare foot? I assume it goes to self image, but feeling good about something that is from all angles a good situation provides ( me at least) with the most fulfillment, a sense of happiness that lasts and can be looked back to at any point for a quick ego boost. For myself at least it is kind of like keeping an ego diet, I don’t care for others suffering, I do not allow myself to enjoy it, when I see a bully get beaten up by a small kid I see the entire fight as a tragedy, I think this is what allows me to take such pleasure in awesomeness that is life. When your not constantly padding your ego with crushing your enemies or being the top of a social order you start to really appreciate having food to eat, or spending time w/ others, or just nice weather. This (again at least for me) leads to a very deep sense of appreciation for life and general sense of happiness, despite all the VERY BAD stuff going on in the planet.
So to close, try giving a bit of thought to the things you feed your ego with, and maybe try my recommended diet, you might be surprised with the result ^^
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