Your Self Esteem is the Power that Manages the Ego

Consider this:

When the ego takes us over, when we need to win, or when we need to prove that we are right, or when we need to show how much more we know, or when we need to demonstrate, by virtue of our toys, how much more we are worth in chrematistic terms, or when we need to make others aware, by dropping the names of those we know or rub shoulders with, how much more important we are in social or professional terms ... when we do all of this in order to satisfy the ego, our self esteem is showing us how little we truly value ourselves.

If your ego needs the type of satisfaction I've just painted, you clearly suffer from a lack of self esteem, else you would not need any of this. The more conscious you are (see also Consciousness Is A Full-time Job and On the Road to Inner Freedom), the more you will become aware of the pull of your ego. And the places into which it wants to pull you, assuming you have begun to differentiate between your conscious and your not conscious self, are always places where you don't feel - in the long run - as good as you feel when the ego is not running the show.

When your self esteem is healthy, you have no need to satisfy the ego's empty needs because those needs are no longer your needs.

And that is why your self esteem - or the level (and health) of your self esteem is the power that manages the ego.