The ego, which represents the self in our identity, needs to find balance. Its role is to help us accept ourselves and build self-esteem, which means believing in our worth and abilities without ignoring our own needs or those of others. It is perfectly fine to love yourself; that is how you should view yourself. However, issues arise when our ego adopts unhealthy traits.
An unhealthy ego views itself as either better or worse than others. It acts based on negative feelings and self-centered thoughts, believing it is more significant or less significant compared to others.
Feeling superior is harmful when it leads to believing you deserve more than others, always needing to be right, putting others down, being unable to celebrate others’ successes, or seeking praise for your own accomplishments. This can result in a superiority complex, where the ego tricks us into feeling better by comparing ourselves to others in a way that diminishes our value.
On the other hand, feeling inferior is problematic when it causes you to ignore your own feelings and needs, undervalue yourself, think you deserve less than others, wrong others, or belittle those around you. These behaviors stem from an inferiority complex, where we believe we are not good enough, often leading to compensating behavior.
Both feelings of superiority and inferiority arise from low self-esteem, which affects how we view ourselves. When we have a healthy ego, we don’t focus on comparing ourselves to others but concentrate on other aspects.
A healthy ego does not consider itself better or worse; instead, it prioritizes morals and principles. By developing these morals and principles, we build integrity—being honest and having strong values toward ourselves and others.
In summary, a healthy ego stems from a solid set of morals and principles. It is also essential to ensure that our morals and principles align with each other. We can discover this alignment through self-awareness—being conscious of our thoughts and feelings as they occur.