Looking inside, is there a sense of self, of all that you are?
Generally, the word ego is thought of as a person's self-esteem or opinion of themselves, but ego is far more than just that.
The origin of the word ego came from the Latin, meaning ‘I’, then over the years the meaning has evolved to now broadly refer to as our 'sense of self'.
We refer to this 'sense of self' as I or myself - but this is an untrue summary.
All we ever know of our ‘self’ is what we are consciously aware of about our self - but what is often not realised is that this is merely the surface.
Our self - in its entirety - is never known, because its foundations lie beyond awareness, residing in our unconscious.
So, ego is our 'sense of self', but we never know the totality of self or ego, or what brought it into existence.
Although we cannot know the fullness of self or ego, it is obviously unique - and it must be the sum of all that has gone before, including all that has been - and continues to be - experienced and learned, plus our unique inherited characteristics and our primordial instincts - all coming together to create each unique individual human being.