Ego vs Intuition. What's the difference?

According to The Conversation, nearly half of the Americans believe in their intuition to know what's true. But what do the rest half of the people follow? The answer is “there could be many of the underlying emotions influencing one’s decision power." These underlying emotions sometimes appear as manifested beliefs based on past experiences, or sometimes they appear as the fear, or sometimes they appear as the voice in your head. All these emotions come under the tag of your "Ego."

Has it ever happened to you when you’re about to make a new move, take a tough decision, or faced with something unusual? You're advised to “believe in your instincts, or move with your gut?" Everyone's been there at least once in a lifetime. You might have been repeatedly told to listen to your inner voice, but, in reality, it's surprisingly complex because your inner voice is not always your intuition. Often it is your mind and ego speaking to you, and following them blindly could be disruptive. 

Is it confusing ….right?

On one side, it’s your intuition, and on the other side, there is your ego, but you can't seem to tell the difference between them, and you have no idea whom you’ve been following this long. 

Don't worry; let's do a quick test to determine if you're influenced by your "intuition" or your "ego."

Select the emotional responses that you think influence your actions from the table below.

If most of the responses represent the "ego" part, this blog is probably for you. At this point, you might be thinking, "How can I tell the difference between my intuition and my ego." "How do I know if my true inner voice leads me." Before we dig deeper into learning how to know which voice in your head is dominant, it's essential to understand what actually your intuition or ego represents.

What is your Intuition?

The feeling of “knowing” without any explanation or the gut feeling is telling you "something," or the "signs" that seem meaningful represent what you call "intuition." Your intuition stems from your higher intelligence. It feels like there is an inner well of wisdom that sends you messages and guides you towards what's best for you. You might often feel intuition as the audible voice in your head telling you what next step you should take. You can understand intuition as the reflection of truth; the underlying feeling that you are safe and happy is more potent than anything else.

What is your ego?

Your ego is an essential part of your mind that gives of a sense of self.  It analyzes your reality and protects your sense of personal identity; that’s its job. It ensures that you are safe both physically and mentally. However, often ego is deeply influenced by the surrounding world; the society, culture, and values we grew up in affect how we think and feel. Moreover, the past experiences, underlying fears, and subconscious beliefs empower your ego so, it rules your mind and dominates how you perceive.

Often ego creates problems, but it's essential to understand that your ego is inherently not something "evil." If you think you can eliminate your ego from your personality, that's not possible. Your ego works on the survival instincts; it ensures that you don't do something that might put you in a difficult situation. It assesses your physical problems and prepares the action plan based on survival mechanism; that's its primary job to keep you safe.

However, when the ego gets overdeveloped, it creates feelings of stress, anxiety, or depression. This is because your ego doesn't always know the right path; sometimes, it's unclear and eluding so, it doesn't make the decisions that keep you safe. Instead, your ego takes actions out of fear, and this is where the problem arises.

You might be thinking.

If the ego is so bad, then don't we eradicate it?

Let me tell you

No, your ego isn’t evil. It keeps you ALIVE with a PURPOSE which is as essential as breathing.

I know it's so complicated..., right?

Learning to know from where the inner voice arises is often confusing, and understanding of the demanded actions would benefit you or not is trickier and more challenging. Hence, it's essential to understand how you can differentiate between your voice of fears (ego) and your voice of love(intuition) o choose the right direction clearly.

Illusion vs. Clarity

As human beings, we all are familiar with the voice of the ego. We experience so many fearful emotions in our daily lives that we think it's normal to have them. But that’s not true; just because it's common to have negative emotions; doesn't imply you should bear with them. The voice of the ego is often loud, unclear, misleading, and creates illusions. Common ways ego manifests in self includes the emotions such as:

• I cannot be good enough. 
• I don’t deserve better.
• I’m already old to pursue my dream.
• I'm too dark, skinny, chubby, old, weak, etc.
• Nobody tries to understand me.
• No one believes in me.
• I can’t switch my job because I can’t take risks.

These are some of the several emotions that ego makes us believe in. Interestingly, all these emotions have no back; they are mere projections of a fearful mind that limit your mind from taking a different path. Your ego keeps reminding you of the past incidents where you tried to do something, but you didn't make it; thus, limiting your chances to attract any of the good.

On the other side, your intuition is your natural state of being yourself. It stems from your soul and uses Higher Intelligence to assess your physical reality. Intuition believes in faith and constantly pushes us to leave the comfort zone. It keeps us connected to our self, purpose, and certainty. The voice of your intuition is often quieter but clear. The voice is positive, supportive, and kind.

Common ways your intuition manifests in self includes

• You see life with a lens of abundance.
• You take actions out of your comfort zone.
• You believe in universal abundance.
• You believe in yourself and your decisions.
• You let go of the feelings of fear (felt from ego).
• You use your wisdom to see the good in the bad.
• You believe that you're enough, worthy, and deserving.

Excuses vs. Solution

Let’s suppose for a minute that you work as a designer at some company. You are happy with your current payroll; however, you had always dreamt of achieving big, but you never tried to chase it. Then, on some other day, you came across a job posting that demands a skillset relevant to you. You get excited to apply for the job, but then you see that other applicants (your competitors) have more experience than you while you were a young professional in the field. You try to stay calm and focused, but suddenly you hear a voice, "you're not good enough, you can't do that at this age/time; what happens if you fail? You are nowhere in the competition; Interviewers might even reject you in the first round; it’s better to stick to the old job."

Here, the voice of the ego is fearful of taking action out of a comfort zone. This is why it makes excuses and tells you to stop moving in an unfamiliar direction. While the intuition knows that this voice is based on fear and not your faith so, you don't let the ego voice dominate and stay calm and connected to your purpose.

Fear vs. Love

Asking yourself questions whenever you hear a voice is another powerful way to differentiate which voice is speaking to you. It's interesting to know that your ego always asks questions out of fear and anxiety while your intuition always bases its question on faith which is more inclined towards the solution.

Here is what you should do when your voice tells you something next time, and you can't seem to differentiate it.

• Stay calm, relax, take a few long breaths
• Focus all of your attention on your breath.
• Feel that your feelings of stress and anxiety are leaving your body.
• Repeat a few times until you feel collected.

The next step is to ask yourself a few questions that would definitely clear away thoughts' blurriness.

• What's going around me?
• Am I feeling afraid or relaxed?
• Does this thing/decision make me happy or stressed?
• Will this opportunity improve my life or not?
• Am I missing out on anything? If yes, what could it be?

You will notice that slowly your mind becomes clear; your heart comes at peace; and you feel content at the moment, which is a clear indication that you've chosen the right direction.

Scarcity vs. Abundance

Another way to differentiate between your ego and intuition is to assess the emotions attached to the voice. Often ego creates feelings of scarcity or the feelings of missing out. It manifests as feelings of jealousy, competition, and lack. It constantly tells you that there is so much going around, but still, there is not so much for you.  It makes you feel envious of someone who has something you don't have thus, keeping you trapped in a continuous cycle of fear and inferiority. 

Whereas your intuition believes in abundance and knows that there is so much good out there, and you need to tap on it. Intuition is always based on the present moment, and thus, it demands attention and focuses just on the current moment. Intuition knows that true happiness comes from the inside and not the outside, so it doesn't base its happiness on external things.

Listen to learn

Learning to understand and the meaning of your voices takes time and practice. Awareness is the foremost step to tune into your intuition. It always stems from love and propels you in the right direction. If you think you have practiced enough to seek your inner wisdom and can clearly differentiate between your ego and intuition, then more power to you, but if there is the slightest chance that you could fall prey to your ego, then it's best to seek guidance from a coach who helps you uncover the truth of feelings for you.

As a financial coach, my goal is to help people like you align their goals (both physical and mental), so you could be the best version of yourself and live your life in abundance. I can help you understand what your intuition wants to tell you and how you can tap on your inner wisdom for guidance. With a proper action plan, not only would you be able to manage your finances, stay financially independent, but you will also become knowledgeable enough to let go of your fears and embrace the new opportunities wholeheartedly.