A bit like kids not having filters and believing anything is possible, we generally find ourselves hiding our true spirit behind our ego. Like an egg, we shield ourselves with the ego around us with the spirit hidden inside, sometimes the spirit is free, other times it's not.
Often, we do this subconsciously, and consciously with our general fears on how we feel how things would be perceived by people around us, for not being accepted and you could say, of who we really are. Most of us deep down are quite scared of being vulnerable and we tend to hide behind our egos because of that, it makes us more comfortable. The ego and the spirit is often something they teach about in karate and boxing.
One of the activities we did on the leadership camp was to imagine myself as a two year old again and just do whichever and whatever I felt like doing. And we would feel comfortable as everyone else around uswas doing it too, as it's okay to be a kid at times. Even today I still find hills to roll down and run under trees to catch leaves but that's me...
I can't say I do it all the time, I can't do it if I'm in a suit for instance, but perhaps the next time you are aware that your ego might be in the way of your true spirit then it's something to think about. So go and find your hill and roll down it and let your spirit free... who knows you might even decide to do it in that new suit/ dress of yours... haha have fun! :)
Here's also a couple of nice quotes to leave you with:
"As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart. As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy, because you have begun to trade in unrealities and there is no joy in things that do not exist." - Thomas Merton
"Many [people] ... never become the [person] who is called for by all the circumstances of their individual lives. They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other [person]... For many absurd reasons, they are convinced that they are obligated to become somebody else.. They wear their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavour to have somebody else's experiences or write somebody else's poems or express someone's else's spirituality." - Thomas Merton
