Lower Self: What can happen when Lower Self is out of balance?

What or Who is the Lower Self?

The lower Self is part of us that is connected to our emotions, energy, and physical environment. We can imagine the lower self as a child who hasn't learned how to speak yet, so we can't communicate with him using words. The lower self will speak to us through feelings and desires. Our Lower Self is like a sponge that is absorbing everything from its environment. It's connected to our emotions and energies from the past.

The Lower Self is often described as primal, instinctual, childish, animalistic, and sexual. We can compare the Lower Self to the id. According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories. We must understand that the Lower Self isn't the id itself. The id is a part of the Lower Self that helps us understand what the Lower Self is. A newborn child is an id, and later develops an ego and a superego. It's the progression of the evolution of the human soul that is formed from the Lower Self (as being where we came from), the Middle Self (being where we are), and the Higher Self (being where we are going).

The Lower Self can also be understood as the Inner Child.

What can happen when Lower Self is out of balance?

When the Lower Self is out of balance on its own, we're either starting to lack control or tend to addictions and bad habits. Also, we can begin denying ourselves enjoyable experiences or (in the worst cases) denying our body what it needs for survival.

When the Lower Self is out of balance with the Middle Self, we become unconscious of our feelings and experiences. We begin to deny the wholeness of who we are, and this starts to create shadow issues. The experiences, emotions, and aspects of ourselves that we don't want to accept are being pushed away from the Middle Self (however, the Lower Self is always aware of them). We can name the collection of these experiences our shadow. The shadow is what ego rejects and pushes back into the shadows of our mind, where it's hidden - but it's still there. Our shadow self is a part of us, and the more we ignore it, the more our shadow will try to get our attention.

When the Lower Self is out of alignment with the Middle Self, we may become too naive, lacking our wisdom and critical thinking.

When the Lower Self is out of alignment with the Higher Self, we will start to be the worst examples of humankind - we become monsters. The Higher Self tells us what is right and what is wrong. If the Lower Self is out of alignment with the Higher Self, we might become uncontrolled, tend to harm others, or start to be aggressive (fight behavior). We may start to have issues with empathizing with others, stop carrying about how we affect the animals and the environment. Some people also might start manipulating and draining others (consciously or unconsciously) to feed energy supplies.

We need to find a balance between Lower Self, Middle Self, and Higher Self. We should try to align with one or more of our souls. Thanks to our relationship with our souls, we can summon aspects of ourselves to know ourselves better. Lower Self and Shadow Work can teach us to understand who we truly are (not just who we want to believe we are). The Lower Self can be invoked for healing, communing with the natural world, animals, and nature spirits.