ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते,
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

This ancient shloka is from the Isha Upanishad which describes the cosmic order of universe. The universal creation is Infinite, boundless yet complete by itself. Every fragment of creation, arising from the whole consideration is completed by itself. There is completeness here. We are a part of that complete energy which is the creation of creator.

The Higher Self is our greatest potential. Once we connect to our Higher Self, we understand more about the world and it is the best thing to happen in our life to fully appreciate the relationships between seemingly unconnected facets of life such as countess happenings in our life, our duties and responsibilities, a particular part of our life which matures us. This leads to a more holistic worldview that can help us find the balance between seemingly incompatible positions in life. The term incompatible with life is used in circumstances of damage such as losing something precious, a person near and dear, an accident which injures some part of body,  or developmental disorder that render life impossible.

When we live in alignment with the inner wisdom of our Higher Selves, we become the best possible version of ourselves. Our Higher Self knows our true purpose and includes our potential to live a fulfilling and joyous life through personal growth and self-awareness.

Inner wisdom is our ‘gut feeling’, it is our intuition and inner guide that we can trust to point us in the right direction. To channel this ability, we must set aside our ego and ideas of how things should be and instead tune into what feels right.

Mindfulness is associated with both a sense of purpose in life and engagement in activities, which are also connected with positive outcomes. Moreover, having purposes in life is linked to higher levels of behavioral foundation.

Om Poornamadah prayer reveals the highest truth of the Universe that “Everything is One We all are One. The whole Creation (air, water, earth, fire, sky) is One. We have come with high Perfection. Everything remains within Perfection. Perfection alone remains forever. So, nothing is separate. We are all like infinite waves of the whole unlimited Ocean of realization. Like a wave, we rise, move forward and merge again in the Ocean of Consciousness which is always Purnam. Many modern Scientists and many modern Mathematicians are fascinated by this Vedic Verse; through this prayer, we remember the ultimate truth of every day, every moment. To merge with the wholeness, we need just 20 minutes of meditation daily.

How to meditate

Choose one corner of your home. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed, simply breathe in while saying “breathe in” in your head as you do. Then breathe out and say, “breathe out”. For the next 20 minutes or so, your aim is to focus on this circular breath and the simple words in your head as much as possible. Let this chosen spot for meditation be the same every day.

Watch your breath

As you begin your meditation, become aware of your own breath, taking deep cleansing breaths. Feel your body from head to toe and scan how each area of your body feels in the present moment. As you inhale, take in your dreams and desires. As you exhale, allow yourself to let go of all the negative energy that takes away from them.

Watch your thoughts

As you meditate, allow all your thoughts to be watched upon. Don’t judge or label any of them. Don’t resist them. Allow them to come and go. All thoughts are okay. Don’t try to control them or achieve anything with them as you meditate. Treat them as data, rather than attaching feelings or meaning to them.  If you find that you are being overwhelmed with thoughts, get up. Walk around your space for thirty seconds and then sit in a new direction. This allows the mind to restart, it also allows your body to be more at ease and for you to go deeper into the space where your source lies. 

Be gentle with yourself

Allow the energy you are drawing to yourself, and your spirit serve you. If it doesn’t, allow yourself to let go of it without blame, ego or judgment. This is a way to be the gatekeeper and give yourself inner guidance to expel fear, doubt and negativity from your body and mind.

Clearing your mind through meditation creates the foundation for manifesting intentions for yourself in the most powerful way in the present moment. It prepares you for moments of divine inspiration, prosperity and abundance that will lead your future self-filled with these gifts. 

Conclusion

I conclude this article stating that Freud’s id, ego, superego play with our higher self; id is the aggressive energy largely held in our unconscious mind, ego is tasked with balancing reality with the demands of desire (id) and morality (superego) ego lies in conscious mind, and super-ego is  The superego is one’s conscience which is established via identification with parental figures or social groups at large. Our Higher Self relates to superego – the wise being within all of us. It is a calm, loving, and spiritual guide that brings our positive characteristics to the surface and tasks us with questioning our lower nature. When we live in alignment with the inner wisdom of our Higher Selves, we become the best possible version of ourselves. Our Higher Self knows our true purpose and encompasses our potential to live a fulfilling and joyous life through personal growth and self-awareness.

Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Om Poornamadha, Poornamidam helps us knowing ourselves. I am giving here below a small part of “Aath Prahar” by Pandit Jasraj for your peace.

Human behaviour is complex to understand, why somebody is behaving vaguely cannot be explained. Sigmund Freud the founder of psychoanalysis had said that personality is composed of three elements known as the id, the ego, and the superego. These elements work together to create multifaceted human behaviours. Each component is unique in nature and plays its distinctive role in contributing its input to personality. The three interact in ways that have a powerful influence on an individual. Each element of personality emerges at different points in life.

The Id

According to Freud, the id is the source of all intuitive/psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality. It’s the fundamental component of personality that is present from the birth of a human. This aspect of personality lies in the entirely unconscious mind.  The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that remain on the outer surface of our conscious awareness.

The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment; whereas, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness.

The id is very instinctive in nature and instigates erratic/impulsive behaviours. It is the impulsive part of our mind which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs and desires. The personality of the newborn child and toddlers is driven by id.  It is unorganized, demanding, adamant, illogical, moral-less, instinctual, selfish and unconscious. Id is driven by the pleasure that strives for instant gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state of apprehension. For example, alcoholics and drug addicts crave for consumption of alcohol and drugs and they can go to any extent to have it; they can rob other’s money, hit somebody, cheat or do anything to buy and consume the stuff. Another example is an increase in hunger or thirst produces an immediate attempt to eat or drink.

The positive side of id in adults is that it acts as the driving force of personality. It strives to fulfil our goals and objectives. Also, id is the most basic urge that people have, many of which are tied directly to survival; it gives the energy which is necessary to achieve ambitions, survives from fatal diseases. As we mature in life, we learn to control id with ego and superego which develops with our education and experience of life. That’s why we say that education refines human minds.

The Ego

According to Freud, ego arises and develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. Ego eventually emerges to moderate between the urges of the id and the demands of reality. The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind. The Preconscious is dormant parts of the brain that are readily available to the conscious mind, although not currently in use. An example of preconscious mind is having readily available data in mind for giving clarification of a situation. When we brainstorm in a business meeting, we get the data stored in mind just in on spur of the moment to clarify our point. Freud used this term to make clear that self-consciousness is a part of the unconscious, not all of it, which is to say that the subdued does not comprise the whole unconsciously.

The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. It operates on facts and realism. The reality weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or discard impulses. Maturated people handle their id impulses to be satisfied through a process of delayed gratification. The basic function of the ego is based on patience.

Freud compared the id to a horse and the ego to the horse’s rider. The horse provides power and motion, while the rider provides direction and guidance. Without its rider, the horse may simply wander wherever it wished and do whatever it pleased. The rider gives the horse directions and commands to get it to go where the rider wants it to go. The ego guides our behaviour in our conscious life. It helps us control our impulses. When one feels like screaming at somebody in the office for talking a lie, ego rationalises the mind whether it’s worth it or not. When someone is depressed, his ego guides him to hide his depression to the outer world rationalising whether it’s worth showing others or not. The ego controls our anger, our feelings, and emotions through a secondary process of thinking in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id’s primary process. Talking lies, cheating others to grab something, being very self-centred is ruled by id because it does not have morals.

The Superego

The last component of personality is the superego. According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five. The superego holds the internalized moral standards and ethics that we acquire from our parents, teachers and society. Superego gives us a sense of right and wrong. The superego provides guidelines for making judgments. Therefore it is important to train your children from age 0 to 5 with a proper sense of moral values.

The superego has two parts: the conscious and ego ideal. The conscience superego includes information about behaviours that are viewed as bad by parents and society which are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and remorse. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviours that the ego aspires to achieve; for example, acquiring higher educational degrees, acquire special skills in life, mastering an art etc. 

The superego tries to refine and perfectly civilize our behaviour. It works to restrain all undesirable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The superego is the ethical component of the personality and provides the moral standards on which the ego operates. The superego criticizes, prohibits and forms inhibitions in our conscious personality.  The superego does both punishing and rewarding functions of the mind. Our childhood experience forms our superego; therefore it tends to be harsh and unrealistic in its demands. It is most often in search of proper behaviour and the id is in its search for pleasure. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the id, the ego, and the superego are not three separate entities and cannot be explained with clearly defined boundaries. These three elements of our behaviour are dynamic and always act together to influence our overall personality and behaviour. Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego’s ability to function despite the other two compelling forces id and superego. A person who has good ego strength can effectively manage the pressures of life, while a person with too much or too little ego strength can be obstinate or disruptive.

If the ego is able to effectively moderate between the demands of reality, the id, and the superego, a healthy and well-adjusted personality emerges. Freud believed that an imbalance between these elements would lead to an unruly personality.

An individual with an overly dominant id can commit suicide, can become a criminal, and can stab somebody easily.  On the other hand, an overly dominant superego might lead to a personality that is extremely moralistic and disapproving. A person ruled by the superego might not be able to accept anything or anyone that they perceive to be “bad” or “immoral.”

In Freud’s view, a balance in the dynamic interaction of the id, ego, and superego is necessary for a healthy personality.

Sigmund Freud the father of psychology said that mind is landscaped. Like a landscape, mind has a structure and each structure has function of its own to play. In Freud’s model of mind the conscious mind (everything that we see and are aware of) is seen as the tip of the iceberg of our unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind is like a storehouse of our primitive wishes, ideas, and impulse which are kept at bay and mediated by the preconscious area. According to Freud the structure of the unconscious mind is like a large metal pot ‘cauldron’. So all that we desire but are scared to speak of and some events which have left lasting effect on us of which we are unable to speak because of fright are locked away in the unconscious mind. The ‘locking away’ process happens through suppression/repression. Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind; he stated that to a great extent it governs behavior of people. And, the objective of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious conscious (aware).

In 1923, Freud developed a more structural model of the mind comprising of id, ego and superego. These are not physical areas within the brain, but rather hypothetical conceptualizations of important mental functions.

Freud said that the id expresses pleasures which comprises of two kinds of biological instincts or drives which Freud labeled as Eros and Thanatos. Eros helps the individual to survive; it expresses life-sustaining activities such as respiration, eating and sex. The energy created by the life instincts is known as libido. In contrast, Thanatos is viewed as a set of destructive forces present in all human beings such as hostility, aggression and destruction. Freud believed that Eros is stronger than Thanatos, thus enabling people to survive rather than self-destruct.

The ego develops from the id during infancy. The ego’s goal is to satisfy the demands of the id in a safe manner which is socially accepted and does not harm others.  In contrast to the id the ego follows the reality principle as it operates from both the conscious and unconscious mind.

The superego develops during early childhood when the child identifies with the same sex parent and is responsible for setting moral standards to be followed. The superego operates on the ethics and morality principle and motivates us to behave socially in a responsible and acceptable manner. The superego makes us self-governed; we feel ashamed for cheating others or harming others and feel guilty if rules are not followed by us. When there is conflict between the objectives of the id and superego the ego acts as a referee and arbitrates the conflict. The ego can thus organize various defense mechanisms to prevent it from becoming overwhelmed by anxiety.

Freud has explained that our brain guards us from disturbing thoughts and memories by holding back them and he believed that we are almost entirely driven by unconscious sexual desire. So Freud used to say that our dreams are a secret outlet for these repressed desires. Sigmund Freud used dream analysis to interpret the fundamental language of dreams; it is very different from normal conscious thinking. Freud intelligently used id, ego and super-ego to support his research on dreams.

The study of dreaming is called Oneirology; its psychoanalysis runs through neuroscience, psychology, and literature. Do you know, till today the plain fact why we dream is still unexplained. But that hasn’t stopped scientists from coming up with some pretty fascinating premise; each study has come out with variety of reasoning.

Dreaming allows wish fulfillment: After examining and analyzing dreams of hundreds of his patients, Freud came up with a presumption that dreams are wish-fulfillments. Any dream, no matter how terrifying, can be looked at as a way of getting something that you want, either literally or symbolically. If you dream of falling from height, which is the most common dream, the dream suggests that you may have lost control over a particular situation in your life. The situation can possibly be linked to job, work, and school assignment, home or even in your relationship. Falling dreams are usually vivid ones that you can recall them quite easily and are able to remember most of the symbols.

Dreaming is storing an idea in memory: Famous psychiatrist Jie Zhang said that dreams are not just randomly-generated stories caused by neural impulses. Perhaps, there are also more reasons for dreaming them. He said that our brain is always storing memories regardless of whether we are awake or asleep. Dreams are a kind of “temporary storage” area of realization, a spot where we hold memories before we move them from short-term to long-term storage. A dream flashes through our mind before it is filed in our memory.

Dream often cleanses our mind: In our dreams we get rid of undesirable connections and associations that build up in our brains throughout the day. Basically, dreams are garbage collection mechanisms, clearing our minds of useless thoughts and making way for better ones. Essentially, we dream in order to forget the bad actions and deeds. Dreams help us get rid of the information overload of daily life and retain only the most important data. Yes, that’s the truth.

Strengthening what we learn: One theory suggests that we actually dream to remember rather than forget. It’s based on a number of studies that show people remember what they’ve learned better if they dream after learning it.  It supports Jie Zhang’s theory about long-term memory storage; our dreams help us retain what we’ve learned.

Psychiatrists suggest that we should keep people awake and talk to them for hours if they have experienced a trauma. The theory is reinforced by recent studies on trauma, which suggest that when people go to sleep right after a traumatic experience, they are more likely to remember and be haunted by the trauma.

Preparation for threats: Neuroscientist Antti Revonusuo of Finland suggested that dreams play a biological function often to replicate threatening events which prepare us to face it. People who have threatening kinds of dreams are better able to face threats in their waking hours, because they’ve already run through these in their dreams. Harvard medical researcher Deirdre Barrett suggests that dreams are a kind of theatre in which we are able to solve problems more effectively than when we are awake. This happens partly because the dreaming mind makes connections more quickly than the waking mind does. This idea is based in part on experiments she did where people were asked to solve problems while “sleeping on them.” The problem-solving outcomes were better for the candidates who dreamt.

Processing painful emotions with symbolic associations: solving problems in our sleep is itself a kind of Darwinian process. Basically, dreams are natural selection for ideas and this can broaden to the level of emotions, too. One group of researchers suggests that dreams are places where we run through situations and try to select the most useful emotional reactions to them. Psychologist Richart Coutts suggests that this is the best way to react to those situations emotionally. And, we often feel better about painful issues the next morning after a night of dreams. While a Darwinian model of dreaming suggests that we aggressively transform our ideas to weed out problematic and awkward emotions, a new model of dreaming suggests that the process is more like therapy. We don’t aggressively select for the most adaptive idea or emotion, we just run through those ideas and emotions and place them in a broader psychological context. Often, the brain does this by associating an emotion with a symbol.

So friends, dreams play an important role in our emotional, psychological and physical health. We have the romantic, terrifying, emotional, funny, awkward, loving, uniting, separating and weird dreams. What we may not realize is that these dreams are common across cultures and their seemingly wacky content is both important and meaningful. We spend an average of eight hours a night sleeping, which is basically a third of our life. About a quarter of our sleep is spent dreaming, which in an average lifetime represents about six full years of dreaming. Most of the researchers conclude that dreams play a central role in our emotional health, our memory, our learning and to help us to find solutions to our problems.