07/04/2026
This evening I sit on the eve of my 58th birthday, and reflect on these thoughts.
At the core of who we are… is the soul.
And at some point, over thousands of years, or perhaps even from the moment we arrived in this dimension, living fully as the soul became too vulnerable.
And so the ego was formed.
Not as something negative… but as a kind of protection field.
A way to navigate the world. A way to stay safe.
But somewhere along the way, whether by design or by accident, the ego became louder than the soul. And so much of what we now call “self love”… is actually self love at the level of the ego.
Managing it.
Soothing it.
Trying to improve it.
But when we try to break patterns- addiction, habits, ways of being - we are often using the ego to fight the ego.
And that rarely works.
Because the ego is not here to be fixed. That is not its role. Its role… is to protect.
And so the real shift comes not through control, not through force, but through a deeper remembering and understanding.
A return to the soul.
True self love is not ego-based. It is the love of the soul… from the soul.
And to access that, we have to learn to listen differently.
To move beyond the noise of the ego mind, and into something quieter… more subtle… more true. This is where the real tools live.
Not the ones created by the ego - but the ones that arise from the soul.
The practices that are felt, not forced. That are remembered, not learned.
Often ancient.
Often anonymous.
Not claimed… but received.
Because their source is not the individual whose name becomes known - but something far greater.
And perhaps this is part of why we are here.
Not to perfect the ego…
but to gently bring it back into alignment with the soul.
To create spaces where the soul feels safe enough to emerge again.
In the quiet moments.
Before the world wakes.
Before the mind begins.
At sunrise… when everything is softer.
And in the simplest of places - the breath.
The breath as the bridge.
The breath as the return.
Perhaps the greatest act of self love… is simply this.