Inner Work 260: Are you operating from ego or from your Higher Self?
Inner Work: A Spiritual Growth Podcast
Josephine Hardman
4.9 • 619 Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Understanding how our ego selves operate (as opposed to what it feels like when we're aligned with our Higher Selves) is ESSENTIAL on the path of spiritual growth and evolution.
This episode of INNER WORK breaks down 4 key differences between your ego self and Higher Self so you can learn how to tell them apart and shift from an egoic perspective or state of being to a much higher, clearer, wiser vibration whenever you need to.
Key takeaways & topics covered:
- Ego is the MASK you wear to survive: concerned with survival, status, appearance, how others perceive you, maintaining SAFE social standing, avoiding rejection, and staying safe in your community through conforming and not rocking the boat.
- Your Higher Self guides you toward highest expansion, becoming your most authentic, self-realized, joyful, peaceful, purposeful Self: focused on evolution, purpose, alignment, Soul calling, personal & collective growth, and abundance.
- Ego is limited to linear time & space and this ONE lifetime; Higher Self exists beyond linear time & space, holds accumulated wisdom from prior lifetimes, and extends beyond this physical lifetime.
- Push-and-pull dynamic: Higher Self calls you toward expansion and forward momentum; ego pushes back with fear, self-doubt, overthinking, perfectionism, lack of trust (especially at breakthrough moments like quitting a career, investing in yourself, or bold steps) equating change with death and familiarity with safety.
- Ego is self-obsessed and myopic, whereas your Higher Self cares about the greater whole, collective well-being, and guides you with wisdom, clarity, respect of Self & others (even when in conflict) without harm, revenge, or violating boundaries. Watch to recognize common ego tactics, see beyond them, and follow your Higher Self toward your greatest evolution and alignment.
Watch this as a video episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bIZS1Ya7sdQ
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Thank you for being here, doing your inner work, and leading the way for others with your light. It makes a difference!
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Music & editing by G. Demers
Inner Work 2026 All Rights Reserved.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Inner Work, a spiritual growth podcast, a sanctuary for healers, lightworkers, |
| 0:10.8 | and spiritual practitioners who are here to raise consciousness on this planet. |
| 0:17.2 | You've come to the right place to heal yourself and fully awaken your unique gifts so you can |
| 0:25.2 | show up to serve others as powerfully and purposefully as possible. I'm your host, Josephine |
| 0:32.9 | Hartman, a certified intuitive healer and Akashik Records Master Teacher. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm honored you're here and delighted to walk next to you on your path for a little while. |
| 0:45.9 | To connect with me and explore ways of working together, |
| 0:49.7 | please head over to www.josephinehartman.com. So I'm really excited to share this video with you today |
| 1:00.8 | where we're going to be talking about four key distinctions between our ego self and our |
| 1:09.8 | higher self. So how can you tell them apart? How can you know when you're |
| 1:15.7 | operating from your ego or from your higher self, which is a really important question that we can |
| 1:24.2 | ask ourselves on an ongoing basis as we walk the path of spiritual awakening and |
| 1:32.5 | personal evolution. So let's start here with our first key distinction. So distinction number one, |
| 1:41.7 | ego is a mask. So ego is the mask that you wear, that we all wear as humans, to survive in the world. |
| 1:56.6 | So whereas ego is this mask or this appearance that we put on or that we develop to try to survive in the world, |
| 2:07.9 | your higher self is who you actually are, right? |
| 2:13.6 | Or who you are beyond the trappings of this mask or this appearance, which is ego. |
| 2:24.0 | So your ego is also a psychological function, in a sense, since it is there to keep you alive and safe |
| 2:34.0 | and to help you manage your interactions with |
| 2:38.0 | other people. And it will actually let me clarify that because ego thinks that it's |
| 2:45.8 | helping you manage your interactions with other people. In most cases, when ego gets in the way, those |
| 2:54.5 | interactions tend to get derailed, right? Or conflict is escalated because we are not showing up |
... |
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