Our thoughts have a way of making every little thing about us.

Someone was rude to me so I was being mistreated or someone cut me off... How dare they cut ME off!

The next time someone is rude to you or tries to start a fight with you listen to their words. I'll bet money that they use the words I, me, mine, myself and my more than any other words in the human language.

If you think about it pretty much every bad feeling stems from those words. If we assumed that the reason the person was being rude to us was because of them and not me then we would realize that it's their problem not my problem. You see what I am saying?

I is a misperception of who you are. You are not I. You are Bob or Susan or Linda. You are not I or me or myself. I is your ego speaking not you.

Alberta Einstein, who I am realizing to be more brilliant with everything I learn about him, referred to the ego as "an optical illusion of consciousness" That illusion of self can become the basis for all future interpretations, or really misinterpretations of reality, all thought processes, interactions, and relationships.

The sense of I can only survive if you keep mistaking it for reality. Like Eckhart Tolle wrote "In the seeing of who you are not, the reality of who you are emerges by itself."

People who become so lost in their ego and think everything happens to them or because of them cannot be aware of their ego. Anyhow who is aware of their ego speaking instead of them would either correct themselves or would admit it at some point. Meaning that if your co-worker is always complaining about how she never gets a break and she get's mistreated by her boss and is always in a state of the world against her, but never says maybe it's not all their fault or maybe they are having a bad day, then she can't see that she's actually living in a world that's not real.

I was thinking of this the other day when I was saying how much someone was affecting me negatively. Then I realized that they weren't affecting me. I was. I was taking it personally and making it all about me and how miserable it was making me but in reality what that person does can not affect me unless I take it personally or unless it affects me physically.

Once you start listening for the ego, in yourself and in others, it becomes insanely apparent. Almost like it's dancing in front of you and you'll wonder how you never noticed it before.

Obviously I and me and mine has to be used sometimes in the right context but it's the meaning behind it that counts.

I would have to advocate not teaching possessions to be all about the person when children are small. When people do this I see their ego coming through. I never try to equate something with my personality or with theirs when I'm around kids.

In the simplest of term lets say your kid knows his name is Johnny and he associates Johnny as himself. It defines him, it's who he is. But now you give him things and say that it's Johnny's toy or Johnny's book and he now identifies with that object as my book and my toy. He puts attachment to it as if it's part of himself. This is why when you take it away from him it causes him serious pain . Not because the toy has serious value to him but because of the thought of 'mine'.

This continues in our life and we attach many things that are supposed to define us. Our weight, our gender, our likes and dislikes, our opinions, and everything else that we think makes us who we are. But that's not who we are. We are Johnny. A loving, giving, compassionate and understanding soul that started in this world with no ego but was taught ego throughout our life.

When I first started learning about the ego and how it's not really reality I remember thinking about all those times that I had just been sitting around not thinking about anything but just being aware and observing what was going on around me. I would get the weirdest feeling in the pit of my stomach and I would attach it to the thought that I was not in reality, I was in a dream like state. But now, looking back at it I see that in those moments I was out of my ego. I was in reality. I wasn't thinking about how they were affecting me or what I should be doing or what other people were thinking about me...I was just sitting there and taking it all in. Totally cool.

If you haven't read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle than you may want to do that. He makes it easy to understand the ego and how to look for your real inner purpose, not your egos purpose.

Kari has been using manifestation and law of attraction for years and has seen the results first hand. Her website Manifest Connection is one of those results and her Manifestation Page is where she share's what she's learned http://manifestconnection.com/.