SHIFT HAPPENS The Difference Between Ego and Soul

ANDREA WAGEMAKER

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE between ego and soul? Tapping into this information can be useful in guiding you in multiple areas of your life, from your career to your passions, and maybe most importantly, your relationships. If we let the ego take control of our thinking when it is not necessary, we sometimes follow paths that are not most aligned with our higher purpose. Learning to detach the ego when necessary is a skill that takes time to learn, but one that is definitely worth learning.

The ego is just as necessary as the soul—it’s what sets us apart as humans because as far as we know, no other animal has an ego in the way that we do. The ego is who we are in our minds—it’s composed of conscious thoughts and beliefs, labels and our sense of identity.

The ego is helpful when it comes to making some decisions because it’s good at weighing up consequences and outcomes and seeing things objectively. It is also a motivating force that can help us thrive in today’s society it helps us get jobs done. It is also what determines our own perspective of the external world, though this can often be flawed because it is so easily affected by our own emotions and past experiences, rather than the true reality, it is mostly self-serving, thinking of your own wants and needs.

In contrast, the soul is pretty much the polar opposite of everything the ego represents. The soul self doesn’t rely on logical decision making, but instead allows itself to be guided by intuition or signs from the Universe. This is the part of ourselves that exists when the ego self has taken a step back, which is often described as a “flow state” where external constructs like time no longer exist. The soul might be regarded as your “true nature”, since this is the essence of who you are, without the influence of labels, expectations or judgments—it just is.

When they’re in balance, the soul and the ego are able to perfectly coexist—it’s only when one takes dominance over the other in a situation that it is not suited to that becomes problematic. And contrary to what some spiritual teachers will tell you, the aim isn’t to squash the ego completely, because the soul self can equally take over and be unhelpful in some situations.

Think about being in a life-or-death situation: The ego is the force that is going to help you with problem solving to get out of that situation safely, ultimately leading to your survival. In the same situation the soul would be pretty useless at this level of problem solving, and it wouldn’t come with the same sense of urgency to save your life. It would however be useful in keeping you calm and preventing your emotions from taking over completely, which would otherwise likely result in you being paralyzed by fear and being able to take no action at all. The goal is to find balance between the two, and to recognize when one has taken over when it’s unnecessary and potentially problematic.

With the way our societies have become, with a focus on material possessions and instant feedback loops in the form of social media apps, it is much more likely for the ego to take center stage in unwanted situations than vice versa. So how do we learn to take a step back and choose soul over ego in these situations?

Spotting when the ego is in charge is the most important step in choosing your soul over it. If you don’t know when the ego has taken hold, how can you know to let go of it? It can be really difficult to spot when our ego has come to the forefront, since it is a powerful driving force in all of us, and many of us live our lives entirely through our egos without ever questioning it. But once we learn to spot the ego in charge, we can intentionally choose to push it to the side and choose our soul instead, when we don’t think that the ego is serving us. And the good news is that it only takes once for you to say no to your ego, and then it will get easier and easier going forward to do the same.