You know the old adage: Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what ego does. It keeps you feeling separate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote warns against the influence of the ego, which creates a false sense of separation and flaws within ourselves.
In this quote, Elizabeth Gilbert highlights how the ego works to maintain its control over our thoughts and perceptions. It perpetuates feelings of isolation and inadequacy, urging individuals to see themselves as separate from others and emphasizing a sense of duality, thus obstructing a complete understanding of wholeness and interconnectedness. By recognizing the role of the ego, one can begin to challenge its narratives and cultivate a more unified sense of self.
Themes
EgoSelfWholenessSeparationDualityPerception
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on emotional awareness, one might use this quote to discuss how the ego distorts self-perception.
More from Elizabeth Gilbert
All quotes →Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
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I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
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When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
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And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
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But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilling yearnings.
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