Lesson from the Mat... The Ego
Ego. There's a word that has been ruminating in my head recently and frequently brought up in yoga classes and in therapy sessions! Recently, the word "ego" coincides with thoughts of inflated self-esteem, such as referring to a person's ego. "She has such a big ego!" When used in that context, I certainly would not want to be accused of having a "big ego!!!" Some history for you. As I'm a genuine and authentic person, I'll be honest. I googled the definition of ego as it related to Freud (the father of psychoanalysis) as I was too lazy to dig out my old textbooks. I'm the first to admit that many of Freud's theories are "a little out there now," but his definition of the ego is interesting. Here's how Wikipedia defined it...." Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defe...