Being Bipolar

What I’m about to tell you is going to either blow your mind, or drive you crazy!

We’re all bipolar.

Now I already know the 2 extremes of thinking that are probably going on. “What the heck is he talking about?” “Dude this guy is nuts!” “K seriously Ryan, I think you need some help.” “I’m don’t like all this crazy talk.” On the other extreme it would be “Hmm this sounds interesting.”  ”I wonder what he means by that” “I’m not sure that I totally agree right now, but very curious to read on.”
Notice the bipolarity already…

Well whatever you might be thinking right now… get a piece of paper.. write it down.. let go of that thought.. and let’s keep going!

What I am about to talk about is distinctively different from the disorder that is defined as “Bipolar disorder is a condition in which people go back and forth between periods of a very good or irritable mood and depression. The “mood swings” between mania and depression can be very quick.”

Let’s take a look…

The Ego

One extreme, or one side of the coin, is called the Ego. It’s a very popular term in philosophy and spiritualism. I used to think it was Eggo (remember the waffles!) spelt wrong. Your Ego is a internal self-defense mechanism that is built throughout your life. It starts to develop when you begin to face ‘failures’ in your life. For example, someone calls you a name, you get bullied, your parents split, etc. Anything that happened that you interpreted in a negative manner about yourself. When this happens, your Ego begins developing into a ‘coping’ mechanism to deal with that failure; the catch is, it’s all made up in your mind. It’s an ‘illusionary’ coping mechanism. For example, mine developed due to 6 years of bullying and the Ego was “I’m right, your wrong” … for 15 years if anyone disagreed with me or did wrong to me, I would do everything I could to prove that I was right (in my statement or actions) and that they were wrong. Crazy eh! The thing is the Ego is berry berry sneaky (Mr. Deeds crack in case you don’t get the misspelling). So sneaky many of us identify with it as being ‘me’. The Ego usually is filled with anger, hatred, unhappiness, it’s unforgiving, shows no empathy, and the list of negative attributes goes on.

Our Ego is pretty much our selfish side. It’s that side constantly wants, needs, and desires validation, justification, material stuff… again it’s a façade we build in order to deal with ‘failure’ in our life. It’s a cover up of the insecurities of our life. It’s built through our past, and it’s intensity depends on the type of experiences we’ve been through. It’s what limits us. It robs us of our creativity. It’s the main source of our fear, self-doubt, anger, hatred, etc.

The Passion

On the other hand your passion (a.k.a. spirit) is that eternal good in you that you had when you were born. It is that side of you that underneath the ‘facade for failure’ we’ve all build over time. It’s that part of us that sees a fresh beginning each and every day. It’s that part of you that lets you push your limits. Face fear. Get through difficult situations. It is the source of every ounce of love, caring, forgiveness, and of course, creativity. Ignoring this passion is what leaves us unfulfilled and happy. As our passion fights to get out we constantly suppress it to hold onto our identity… our ego. For example, I supressed my passion by refusing to learn. I had a serious identification with my ego which made made me fight to be right instead of embracing my creative side and learning from things that don’t work. No wonder my life wasn’t working the way I wanted it to!

Our Passion is pretty much our selfless side. Everyone has passion. It’s there. There’s no such thing as a passionless person. It’s impossible. Your ego only develops over time, so at time=0 (i.e. birth) you are all passion. The successful people in the world are the ones who find their passion. They feed their passion, not their ego. They try, fail, learn, try again, fail, learn more, and through this process they grow.. grow as individuals… grow their companies… grow their ideas… and most importantly contribute to the world in a positive manner. The positive manner arises form the fact that your passion is all love. Hate doesn’t exist in it’s vocabulary. When you are born you don’t hate anyone.. you have no concept of it. You love. That’s it. That’s all. As our ego develops, the battle rages. Love vs. Hate.

Understanding your passion is your ticket to finding context in your life. What I mean is you find your purpose, a reason to give it all you’ve got, you don’t just run around doing things.. you run around creating a new world… shaping the future. Don’t believe me? Read Steve Jobs story. Mahatma Gandhi has an inspiring story as well. They found their passion, and more importantly lived it. You can to. Stop fooling yourself. It’s not making you any happier. It’s holding you back. Embrace YOU, not your ego.

—

Please comment below. This is a discussion!