An ego is usually defined as an excess of self-esteem and it’s a term that is heard very often. It generally goes hand in hand with pride, constant self-reference, and to believe in yourself, that you should be the center of anything that happens. However, yoga understands ego in a different way.

Human beings have a special function from the mind (according to a yoga philosophy), which is called Ahamkara. This function has to do with the selfish mind. It shows that we really have different egos, not only one. The concept of ego is misinterpreted in yoga. So, if a person can believe that they are superior to others or doesn’t have much ego, they might think that they are arrogant, have vanity or they are able to brag. Having an ego doesn’t really mean to be selfish. Being selfish means acting for one’s own benefit without caring about others.

We are all dressed up.

We dress up with all kinds of dresses that are called egos. So, when we talk about ego in yoga, it means that each one of us has different ones in a wardrobe called Ahamkara. Yoga can teach you that you don’t have to believe you are an unique ego.

People have different egos, because we are performing different roles in real life. Yoga teaches us how to identify the ego according to the situation in which we are into.

Yoga refers to work our different egos in order not to be dominated by our emotions, feelings, and thoughts. Sometimes, many people confuse their ego. They might define themselves as a yoga master and showcase it all the time. But, according to yoga, this is not correct.

On the contrary, we have to accept that we are people who want to change, depending on any situation we find ourselves into. The yoga can invite us to detach ourselves, to learn to move positively and intelligently, from one state to another.

How can yoga do this? Through versatility.

For example, in a yoga class, a person works the egos when he or she is changing from one posture o another.  By doing the change, the person is working on attachment to a situation. If one makes a comfortable posture and goes into an uncomfortable one, it is necessary to be able to detach from the state of comfort given by the previous pose to adapt to the next one.  And the same happens in life.

So, remember that performing yoga, means how to use the right ego in every moment. We learn can through the ego is to detach ourselves from one role, if the behavior scenario is modified, there will be another role.

Yogi Bhajan who is a spiritual master, used to say: “When ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful.”