Does your self image often differ from what others think of you?

Originally Posted by Verunia

Thank you all so much for your input and stories. I have read them all and I've been tossing them around in my head for the past few days. I think I'm nearing some sort of understanding with this.

I would like to mention that, I understand the "ego" is something most people would see as an obstacle or distraction. And it may be. However I have found that trying to avoid it has only created more problems. When you look at it the identity of self is like a tool of interpretation. It gives us a starting point with all of our experiences. I suppose my take is to treat it like a person... to treat myself like a person, and show it compassion and respect through acceptance. Someday, there may be no desire to identify with it anymore.

That seems a wise way to look at ego.

The ego is the sense of self. When that self-image is created through an imbalance of negative or positive reinforcements, then the self-image can be imbalanced. To work on those imbalances does take acceptance and compassion, as you say.

The reason I haven't replied to this thread before, is because I don't have much of a sense of self image. At work, I'm useful because people can ask me to do something and it gets done, and other aspects of my job I do intuitively and people are glad that I know what to do. But I don't attach any of that to me as a person because it just relates to how well I fulfil my job role.