Every tradition has a name for the life force energy that flows through every living being. The Egyptians call it Aka, it is Prana to the Hindu, Qi to the Chinese and Spirit in many Western traditions.
Our life force energy is always available for us. It can help us reach higher states of consciousness, become one with all the energy of the universe and allow us to achieve our purposes in this lifetime. However, access to this vital energy can be blocked when we allow our ego to dominate.
Here are four ways our ego blocks our life force energy:
The ego wants to protect us from harm. While this may seem like a good thing, it does this by trying to keep us in our comfort zones and preventing us from taking risks. Our ego developed many of these defense mechanisms when we were young.
For example, we may have learned as children to be careful and not take any chances. Or, as small children, we may have discovered that other people’s anger could harm us.
From this experience, our ego might decide never to cause any upsets that might put us in a place of danger. Our ego develops all kinds of strategies to keep us safe in what it perceives as a dangerous world.
But to be truly open to all this life has to offer us, we need to experience new things. We are capable adults now and we no longer have to live by these restrictions.
We can work to be free of these limiting beliefs by examining them and replacing them with new more empowering ones. This openness also allows universal energy to pour into us.
Unfortunately, the ego is not very good at taking responsibility for its actions. It is quick to blame others when things go wrong and wallow in self-pity. The ego has a clear idea of how life should be, what should happen and how others should behave. It can have a hissy fit when things don’t meet its expectations.
This can lead to a lot of unhappiness in relationships. It can also prevent us from learning from our mistakes. If we do not take responsibility for our actions, both good and bad, we do not grow and evolve into better versions of ourselves.
When we blame others or bad luck, we lose our power to change circumstances and create a better, more fulfilling and happy life. By being closed to new ways of thinking, we also block the life energy that could help us to make changes.
The ego does not understand that everything is connected. If it did, it wouldn’t feel the need to defend itself all the time. To the ego, life is a battle. It feels it must fight to get respect and love and to get its share in a limited world.
Our higher conscious, which is connected to our life force energy, knows that we are all one and understands that we live in an abundant universe. Whereas the ego believes that if someone else has more, it must have less, higher consciousness knows that there is enough to go around and more.
Higher consciousness also understands that when we hurt others, or when we live from hate or fear, we are actually hurting ourselves, because everything is connected.
When we learn to live from the higher conscious rather than the ego, we feel safe, protected and loved. In this state, we are able to love ourselves better too. In addition, we no longer fear of others or feel resentment or hate.
It would be helpful if sometimes we could turn off our ego and experience the bliss and oneness of the universe. We do experience this at times, such as when we are in love, or surrounded by beautiful nature, or see a baby laugh or have a really deep spiritual experience.
Some people manage to be in this state all of the time, but for most of us, it is a constant battle to stay connected. This is because the ego knows that once we are fully enlightened, it will be destroyed. It is fighting for its very survival and it won’t give in easily.
Most of us can’t hope to defeat the ego permanently, and to be honest, many of us wouldn’t want to as it can be a useful ally in this world. However, we can keep it under control, develop a better connection with our higher self and maintain the flow of life force energy.
There are many, many ways to do this. Humans have been doing it for millennia. Cave paintings are possibly an attempt to connect with source energy, as are the many aboriginal traditions of people’s around the world and the many religious traditions humans have embraced.
Many people find they can make a connection through meditation, yoga, journaling, art, exercise or sport. We can feel when we are connected to life force energy; things flow easily, we have great ideas, feel happy and get things done. Connection to life source makes us we feel happy, creative, and loving.
In contrast, the egoic energy feels heavy resentful, guilty and stressed. Life is busy and most of us don’t have time to retreat from the world and spend hours meditating. But finding an hour or two to do things that connect us to the source of all things can change our lives for the better. It can help us improve our work lives and our relationships, allow money to flow more easily to us and make us more productive.
Constant busyness and stress won’t help us lead a happy, fulfilled and loving life. However, making the effort to quieten the ego and connect to life force energy might.