Negative Ego, the Way of Reactivity
“Everyone knows about REACTIVE: it feels like someone pushed our EGO-buttons, and we react instantlyand play out some unconscious feeling before we’ve had a chance to reflect on it. Reactive self is a stuck self, stuck in the past. Stuck in defending old beliefs. Reactive often projects itself as victim of outside forces. It’s in constant struggle to defend against an enemy or the evils of the world.
“Reactive self is also the path of Aging Quickly. Reactivity = Rigidity, both biologically and psychologically. We don’t allow the Life Force to flow through us like a child, fluid and flexible in our feelings, playfully changing in the moment. We are living a fossilized version of our self from the past. As Lao Tzu says in the Tao Te Ching, an old tree blows over in a storm – even though it is large and looks strong, it is rigid. The young willow sapling yields to the wind, and springs back to life.”
-From Michael Winn, HealingTaoUSA.com