Ego and the Multi-Hyphenate

Ego - n. the “I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.

No matter what you believe in, or what you’ve experienced - put all bias and judgement aside and go on this journey with me. Ever since I was seven years old, I have had a molecular connection to the Titanic. I come from a very liberal, Jewish family, so I was allowed to see the Titanic movie in the theatre. I was so enamored, so intrigued by what I was experiencing - that I had to constantly revisit Titanic four times, or until my family could no long sit through the almost four hour movie any longer. They were incredibly patient with me, to say the least.

At seven, I didn’t know what past life regression was. With whatever language I can communicate with, I just knew that I had a deep connection to whatever I was experiencing. Looking back, I was watching the movie through the eyes of once being there. I believe it was even the first time I had cried because of a piece of art.

I would play Titanic on the playground, constantly talking about her and annoying my first grade teacher. Mrs. Samuels made me go to the library to research a different shipwreck, simply because I could not stop gabbing about the Titanic. As I got older, I started to pay attention to how the Titanic had followed me around. Cosmically, I would be living and studying in London for a semester during the 100 Year Anniversary of the sinking. When I landed in the plane in Heathrow, the Costa Concordia had just sunk and I was greeted with newspaper headlines saying, “It was just like the Titanic.” I would even sail on April 14th 2012, heading back from Amsterdam. After arriving back in London on April 15th, I went to see an off Fringe theatre’s production of a new play, called Iceberg, Right Ahead! There was a talk back after and I was able to be surrounded by family members of Titanic passengers.

When I moved to NYC, my apartment would overlook John Jacob Astor’s grave and the first Playbill cover I photographed would be The Unsinkable Molly Brown revival starring Beth Malone. As I started to try out the app TikTok, I decided to document my April 15th ritual by going to John Jacob Astor’s grave. In just a few days, almost 75,000 people saw the video - many of who shared their experiences being deeply connected with the ship.

Did they genuinely have a connection? Did they just like the movie? Many stories were actually shocking. One woman went to a Titanic exhibit when she was young. At the beginning of the exhibit, you are given a ticket with a name of a passenger. At the end, you can see whether or not you lived or died. She commented on my video saying that she always told her parents she was on a boat and it sank, and that she died because of her heart. Later on she discovered the woman she was assigned died of heart issues and that her current husband had the same signature of the woman’s husband.

A lovely woman by the name of Mayra reached out to me. She is from Soul Signs Hypnosis and offered to do a past life regression for me. I, of course, hit her up and the next day we worked together. I’m not just a believer, I’m a knower of these experiences. As an empath, and someone who experiences spirits and ghosts often, none of this seemed strange to me. For some, this seems to be a wild adventure hopefully offering therapy or closer. For me, it offered confidence.

The one thing that did in fact make me trepidatious was the worry that I would confuse what I’ve seen in the movie, or subconsciously remembered reading in books. Mayra reassured me that the Ego will always be there judging us, judging the experience and to keep diving further. I found this to resonate not just in this two hour work session, but in my life as a multi-hyphenate artist.

To be a multi-hyphenate artist, we have to keep the Ego at bay, remove our self focused energy from the cause, and act in response to the environments around us. The art we create, the puzzles we solve, the stories we tell must come from a place where our Ego is not in charge. If not, our audience can sniff it out before they even have a chance to see what has been produced.

The balance of Ego starts when we understand why. I speak openly about the important of why and how it stimulates our choices as an artist. Finding why is not just a tool, it’s a necessity - just like breathing, just like water. It keeps us inquisitive, focused, and within the bounds of our potential. In understanding our boundaries, we are limitless.

But when the Ego creeps in, we become attached to the distractions. The negative manifestations which distract from our purpose. While the Ego might seem like it’s there to protect us, it’s there to judge our journey, the journey of others, and desires instant gratification. In creating our art, how can we remove our Ego just enough and produce something that reflects the world around us?

So, just as I experienced in my past life regression session, I implore you to replace the Ego and produce art for the other - for the experience of affecting the world around you - for the ability to connect and inspire. Of course, in a Capitalist society artists are seen as a brand, or a product - but how can we keep advancing our careers and achieving goals without a self focused outlook? Ego will always be a part of us, and to me, she acts like a little child. If we don’t include her in the process, she’ll act out and throw a temper tantrum. But if we keep her engaged, with responsibilities, perhaps she can be productive and helpful.

So as you navigate life in the next month - how can your Ego work for you? How can she be a hinderance? And how can you learn more about the ways to delegate responsibilities to the Ego? Perhaps she might even win Employee of the Month.