From Small self to Self Leadership

Jun 25, 2025

Explore the journey of evolving from a limited ego-centered identity to embracing your authentic self. Discover how self-inquiry and mindfulness can help unblend from the small self. Learn to recognize different levels of identity, fostering compassion and awareness. Engage in guided practices that nurture clarity and curiosity, leading to a spacious, open-hearted presence. This discussion emphasizes the importance of welcoming and healing the various parts of ourselves, ultimately guiding you home to your true essence.

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INSIGHT

Levels of Self from Ego to Leadership

Our usual sense of self is the "small self" or ego as a personality center.
True self evolves through levels ending in spacious, compassionate Self Leadership that includes all parts.

INSIGHT

Essence of Self Leadership

Self Leadership integrates awareness, compassion, and clarity to lead inner life.
It transcends purely ego or meditative states by including and harmonizing all parts.

INSIGHT

Ocean Metaphor for True Self

Our essential identity is like the ocean beneath a wave, not just a separate personality wave.
This deeper Self is the ground from which ego and parts arise but doesn’t get lost in them.

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In this episode, we take a fresh look at the journey from our everyday, habitual sense of ego-centered identity—the “small self”—toward discovering and living from our True Nature or what IFS calls Self Leadership. Through a guided glimpse practice and gentle inquiry at the end, we explore how to unblend from the thinker or manager part of the mind and shift into the spacious, compassionate presence of Self.

You’ll learn to recognize the levels of identity—from ego-centered small self to Self Essence, Self Energy, and then Self Leadership. Rather than dissolving parts or pushing them away, we honor them as expressions of natural humanity. By shifting into Awake Awareness as the foundation of Self Essence, we gain access to qualities like clarity, curiosity, and compassion, allowing us to relate to our parts from the Self within that has the capacity to heal us.

This episode offers a direct taste of what it's like to unhook from our ego's effort and rest in the open-hearted, effortless flow of Self Leadership. You'll walk away with a glimpse practice for identifying your parts, creating space around them, and leading your inner life from the natural wisdom of Self. This isn’t about spiritually bypassing or calming our parts—it’s about welcoming, listening, and returning home to who you truly are.

Mindful Glimpse
The episode features Loch offering a guided practice called “From Small self to Self Leadership.” These mindful glimpses serve as invaluable tools for experiencing ways to access the awake consciousness that is already here within all of us.

You can now explore all of Loch Kelly’s practices and teachings on the new Mindful Glimpses app, found at https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses. This innovative meditation and wellness app offers daily micro-meditations, step-by-step programs, and simple-yet-advanced tools for awakening.

EM+IFS Training
If you want to explore today's topic in more depth, shifting from small self to authentic Self, please check out the Effortless Mindfulness and IFS training program.

Loch Kelly Bio
Loch is the creator of the Mindful Glimpses app, and an award-winning author, psychotherapist, and nondual meditation teacher. He is also known for his unique practical methods that support awakening as the next natural stage of human development. Backed by modern neuroscience and psychology, Loch introduces Effortless Mindfulness, which combines an ancient form of nondual meditation and IFS psychology that allows immediate access to our embodied awake nature which arises as our calm, clear, and compassionate healing capacity.

Connect with Loch:

Mobile App: https://lochkelly.org/mindful-glimpses

Website: https://lochkelly.org/...