Julie Andrews is singing in my head "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with Do, Re, Mi… The first three notes just happen to be Do, Re, Mi…"
To Slow Down you begin with … listening to your ego. (tried to make that rhyme in three syllables, but couldn't.)
Surprised?
You start by listening to your ego. There are several reasons for this. First, you start on the layer that you're on, whatever it is. And if your ego is going off, telling you a great story about everything that needs to be fixed, that's the layer you are on.
Second, the ego is programmed like the town crier. When it has a message to deliver it feels obligated to keep delivering that message until it is heard. By listening to the message, and acknowledging it, you let your ego off the hook. It gets to relax.
The third reason to listen to what the ego is saying is that by listening to it you begin to unmask it. The ego's stories are much more powerful when delivered without you noticing.
Have you ever studied or read about subliminal advertising? You know, when frames with pictures of popcorn are inserted into the reel of a movie to make you want to dash out to the lobby for a bucket of buttery, salty goodness? You don't know why you all of a sudden had that craving. You just did, you think. That's kind of what's happening with your ego. It's back there, in the background, where its mechanisms are hidden, so it has great effect. It's the man behind the curtain, if you will, pressing levers and buttons, producing a very compelling picture that you tend to believe is your life.
As long as it operates behind the curtain, or between the frames, it gets to stay in charge. It's not that it necessarily wants to be in charge, any more than the wizard of Oz does. But it thinks it has to be in charge. So it tells its story, it pushes its buttons, it inserts its frames in the movie in order to make you react the way it thinks you are supposed to react.
And for the most part you do. The ego is very clever. And it has the inside scoop on what makes you tick. It knows exactly what story to tell you to keep you within your comfort zone of anxiety and lack.
Just a quick reminder: your ego is not your enemy. It is doing exactly what you have programmed it to do. Slowing Down is not about destroying your ego. It's about changing its programming. Slowing down is about training your ego to let you know what's actually happening in any given moment. This allows you to grow, to get more out of your life, to have more of yourself, to become more whole. Eventually it allows you to approach enlightenment. You don't actually get to enlighten when your ego is in charge, simply because your ego is the one charged with holding up that curtain which keeps you from knowing your Self.
Now back to listening to the ego, and starting to take a look at that curtain.
What is your ego saying? How do you know it's your ego? And what do you do with the message once you hear it?
All you have to do to know what your ego is saying is to listen. It could be telling you a story about how somebody did something that is causing you so much trouble. It could be a regular reminder of who you are – "I am so and so's lover. I wish I had a motorcycle. I don't like peas." It could be that song playing in your head.
Whatever it is, if you start to pay attention you will hear it. It's the layer on top. And a few deeper layers, too. You just have to turn your attention to it. Then you will hear it.
Don't try to get deeper into it until you have actually heard and acknowledged what is up on the surface. What's there? What are you thinking?
How do you know if it is your ego or something/someone else? First you have to listen. If the message you hear is something like "You are Loved. You are One with God. Thank you for bringing your presence into this moment. I am so happy you are here." It probably isn't your ego. You don't do anything with that message other than soak it in because it is the Truth.
If you hear "Aliens have infiltrated the Seattle Center and will soon be taking off in the Space Needle", well, it depends. If that's the sort of thing that sets you right off into paranoia, it's most likely your ego trying to distract you from an emotion it thinks would be too dangerous to feel in this moment. Yes, emotions are more dangerous to the ego than aliens. Much more dangerous.
If, on the other hand, you signed up with the Men in Black, it may be that implant they put in your head, and perhaps you'd better get a move on.
Which brings us to what to do with that message once you hear it. Sometimes the ego's messages are useful, important information. Your ego is the one telling you not to step in front of the bus. It's usually the one telling you "You're late. Leave now!" In both cases you might want to pay attention. Your ego's job is to keep you physically safe. It's very useful that way. The more you pay attention to it when it delivers these messages the clearer they will become. It wants to be useful, so put it to use doing that job.
However, this other job your ego has taken on of keeping you emotionally and socially safe has way more to do with limiting you than with helping you negotiate time and traffic. Your ego wants to keep you safe, within the confines of what is known as your limited human life. It will use all the tools at its disposal to distract you from knowing things that threaten that safety, like what you really feel when your boss hands you another stack of work.
Slowing Down into your thoughts gives you a look at the first line of this distraction. "I'm so mad!" "I hate this." "I don't have enough money." Even "I love her" can be a message from the ego when it comes embedded in lack and/or limitation. All of these messages are designed to reinforce your vision of yourself, and to keep you from noticing this moment and the richness it contains.
So what do you do? Pay attention, listen to the message, acknowledge it and move on. You are slowing down, right? You don't want to engage your ego in a fight by trying to talk it out of the message it's trying to deliver. You don't want to pretend the message isn't there, or your ego will have to turn up the volume. You don't want to jump right into fixing whatever your ego is telling you is wrong. All you have to do is listen, acknowledge, thank it for the message, and then keep slowing down. Even if it is telling you "You are the worst piece of excrement the universe ever laid," listen, acknowledge, thank it for the message, and keep slowing down.
Allow it to tell you the story. You don't need to believe it. Your ego delivers the messages it thinks are important for you to hear. It doesn't often tell you the Truth. Remember, the ego is the one holding up the curtain so you won't see you are God; that you are in charge of your life. Listen. Acknowledge. Keep slowing down.
Another thing to realize about the ego's stories is that they are multi-media. They have images. They have words. And they have chemicals. And thus they feel very real. In order to substantiate its stories the ego releases adrenaline based hormones into your body. You'll recognize them as fear, hatred, need, doubt and such like. Your body gets flooded with these chemically induced emotions and you believe something is terribly wrong. So you try to figure out what to do. When you think about your physical safety this makes great sense. When you think about your emotions it doesn't make quite as much sense. But oh well. We'll get into that more later. For now just consider that as one more reason to listen to the story without taking it quite so seriously. Pay attention, listen, acknowledge with a "thank you for the information" and then keep slowing down.
Next – Slowing Down into your body.
It's all good. It's all God. Slow Down!
Now, where's that popcorn…?
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