Will our ego control us or will we control our ego?

The ego, or that part of our minds that constantly thinks in terms of “I”, “Me”, and “Mine” is one of the buttons that people can press deliberately or unintentionally with the result that we are temporarily taken off our desired path of effective personal development or self improvement and onto a road of mental turmoil.
One of the conscious efforts we can make is to try to control our ego, or the ego’s reactions, particularly in terms of our inner responses to events triggered by other people’s behavior that we would normally find irritating.
We all know at least some of the circumstances that can rile us up.
Someone says something to us that we find disparaging or insultingSomebody disagrees with one or more of our beliefs or opinionsSomeone pulls ahead of us into the exact parking space that we have been heading for at a shopping center
Our normal reaction to events like these normally could range from mild irritation to an intense anger coupled with constantly reviewing the disturbing events or comments over and over again in our minds and thereby disrupting our enjoyment of life for hours, and perhaps even days.
“He/she can’t say that to me!”“How could anyone possibly disagree with me on (name the belief or opinion)?”“How dare someone beat me to that parking spot!”
This is the ego at work, making our thoughts run in directions that we really don’t want them to. One of the tools we can use to reduce this tendency is to make a deliberate effort to control the reactions of our ego. But it’s not easy.
Controlling or managing the ego does not mean we become doormats and put up with unacceptable behaviors from other people. But it does mean that we try to keep our reactions to untoward events in perspective so that we are managing our thoughts rather than having our thoughts manage us.
This is an introductory short post to discussions about the ego — a topic I hope to write on in more detail in future articles. There are many behavioral options to work with, ranging from simple anger management, to a concentrated program of inner work to reduce our dependence on “self” and gain more awareness of what constitutes our true inner consciousness.