The ego is not only the unobserved mind, the mental voice that pretends to be us, but also the unobserved emotions that represent the body's reaction to what the mind's voice says.
We have already seen the kind of thoughts to which the egoistic voice engages most of the time and what is the dysfunction inherent in the structure of these processes, regardless of their content. It is to this dysfunctional thinking that the body reacts through negative emotions.
The voice of the mind tells a story to which the body reacts because it believes in it. Those reactions are the emotions, which feed back into the thought that created them in the first place. This is the vicious cycle between unexamined thoughts and emotions, which gives rise to emotional thinking and the fabrication of emotional stories.
The emotional component of the ego is different in each person. In some egos it is bigger than in others. The thoughts that trigger emotional reactions from the body can sometimes arise so quickly that before the mind has time to express them, the body has already reacted with an emotion. Those thoughts exist in a pre-verbal stage and could be considered as unspoken and unconscious assumptions. They originate in the person's past conditioning, usually in early childhood. “No one can be trusted” is an example of an unconscious assumption in a person whose primary relationships with his parents or siblings did not inspire confidence because he did not find support in them. The following are other common unconscious assumptions: “No one respects or appreciates me. I must fight to survive. There is never enough money. Life is a permanent disappointment. I don't deserve abundance. I don't deserve love." Unconscious assumptions create physical emotions, which in turn generate mental activity or instantaneous reactions. This is how we create our personal reality.
The voice of the ego constantly disturbs the body's natural state of well-being. Almost all human bodies live under a great deal of stress and strain, not because they are threatened by some internal factor, but because of the mind. The body has an ego attached to it and can't help but react to all the dysfunctional thought patterns that make up the ego. Thus, a torrent of negative emotions accompanies the torrent of incessant compulsive thoughts.
What is a negative emotion? It is a toxic emotion for the body that interferes with its balance and harmonious functioning. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, sadness, hatred, jealousy and envy disturb the flow of energy in the body and affect the heart, the immune system, digestion, hormone production, and so on. Even conventional medicine, which knows very little about how the ego works, is beginning to recognize the connection between negative emotional states and physical illness. The emotion that is harmful to the body also spreads to the people who come into contact with us and, indirectly, to countless people we don't even know, through a chain reaction. The generic term to describe all negative emotions is unhappiness.
So positive emotions have the opposite effect on the physical body? Do they strengthen the immune system, revitalize and heal the body?
Of course, yes, but we must differentiate the positive emotions generated by the ego from the positive emotions emanated from the deep state of connection with the Being.
The positive emotions generated by the ego bring with them an opposite into which they can become. Here are some examples: what the ego calls love is desire to possess and an attachment that can turn into hate in a second. The expectation of an event, that is, the ego's overemphasis on the future, easily turns into disappointment and frustration when the event does not meet the ego's expectations. Praise and recognition make us happy and optimistic one day, but criticism and indifference leave us sad and unhappy the next. The pleasure of a party turns into fatigue and a hangover the next day. There is no good without evil, joy without sadness.
The emotions generated by the ego are the product of the identification of the mind with external factors, which are unstable and subject to change at any time, as is natural. Deep emotions are not really emotions but states of Being. Emotions exist in the realm of opposites. The states of Being, although they can remain in the shadow, have no opposite; As aspects of our true nature, they emanate from within us in the form of love, happiness, and peace.