Some seeds are released only through harsh circumstances. Ego is a seed shell of one’s identity held in place until circumstances breaks the hard outer covering so the internal nugget can emerge and grow from form into substance.
Ego is designed to keep you the same while giving the illusion of change. Ego set point returns to identity. Example, you make positive changes in your life and have a measure of success. A setback happens and you zombie out in front of the TV. You don’t even know that you have just reinforced your set point of only earning so much. Or the weight battle treadmill; lose, gain, lose, regain. All ego identity set points.
So you stop. You gather information. You listen to other ideas. You go in another direction, change jobs or get a new mate. Like a thermostat set to kick-in or off to keep the room at a certain temperature, so too the ego holds on to a ‘set points’ to keep us from changing. That is not “just the way you are”.
That is the way the neuro pathways of your brain have been laid down as your internal set point. They were laid down through habit of thoughts and actions. The more they are traversed, the more ingrained they become.
Even when the habit road is rutty and rough and difficult, your habit thought says you can’t and your habit action stays lazy.
Your soul’s set point is not small. That is why you know deep down in your knower that you are more than what you are currently being. Failure to thrive is not your soul’s set point; it is your ego’s set point.
Unless a seed dies it cannot bring forth fruit. When a seed dies – if it had conscious awareness – it would put the brakes on and become devastated because it was falling apart. But the shell has to be removed before the interior nugget can root and grow.
Can your ego identity change? Sure. Your ego identity changes as you nurture it to identify with a new stage of development.
That becomes your new set point. And then you grow into another identity set point.
No matter how broken the body, the soul is never broken. There is a part of you that is always whole and complete. A corrupted damaged seed will grow in cultivated soil. Accept your defeats with grace and self-compassion and begin again. Be your own master gardener and nurture your own soul.
