I read a quote today that got me thinking. Unfortunately, I couldn't fully remember the wording by the time I got to this stage, so I greeted Google with puppy dog eyes, a winning grin and requested the nice search-thingy to locate certain key words. The page I found contained the following quotes:
"What we are, that only can we see" - Ralph Emerson
"All criticism is a form of autobiography" - Oscar Wilde
and part of another quote:
"Life is but a mirror, in whose reflection I see,
Not a myriad of others, but a little bit of me." - Robert Brehm
"The story always represents the storyteller." - Robert Brehm
(as you can see, I love quotes :))
This paragraph also caught my attention:
Self-perception theory and other perception theory, briefly stated, are theories which refer to a means of increasing our self-awareness. The concept "self-awareness" refers to our ability to "observe ourselves", or to introspect, i.e., to notice how our behavior, feelings and reactions are caused by our thinking. Self-perception theory postulates that self-observation is important in increasing our self awareness. Other perception theory, or social comparison theory, maintains that making comparisons with others is important in increasing our self-awareness. (http://www.green-river.com/Interpersonal_Relations/class2.htm)
OK, aside from the minor brain-squishing feeling probably now being experienced, I wanted to acknowledge something important (well, I feel it's important) in this; the power of thinking, and of our thoughts. I think the best example of mind power is when someone can literally 'think' themselves into having symptoms of an illness. This happened on an episode of House once (if I recall correctly); took place in a plane, a person on the flight had a deadly virus, and soon it seemed to spread to every other person in the flight. None were legitimately ill; once they were told they weren't sick, the symptoms disappeared. Another example is Pseudocyesis, the imagined pregnancy syndrome. The mother will experience pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness and weight gain or breast tenderness. It is thought that the condition develops from intense emotional conflict (desire to become pregnant or fear of it), or a strong desire for a wish to be fulfilled (http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pseudocyesis.html). Actually, I discussed a while ago how sometimes, if you wish for something so badly, you can actually imagine it happening in a real sense. I won't go further with this, but it just shows how strong the mind is.
That might be why I suffer from stress and anxiety a lot, since I have such an active mind (unfortunately not always productively active). It seems in moments of stress/anxiety/depression or whatever, the best thing to do is distract your mind, or exercise it (literally, get the blood and other goodness pumping up there, feels good). I tend to look at quotes/affirmations, the inspirational/motivational kind. Or quotes like I posted above, since they get me thinking.
It is pretty much true that we are each our own worst critic. It's been said millions of times, and it will be continue to be said. I said in the previous post how everything is defined by how we each perceive things (one idea, anyway). It is strange to think that we are defining ourselves based on a perception that goes far beyond surface detail; no one else can know the depths of ourselves as we do, yet we tend to concentrate on what we see as our worst aspects, whereas other people see our good.
"An incomplete camera cannot take photographs, and an incomplete eye cannot see" - West Australian letters to the editor Wednesday 30/9/2009 'Please explain: A logical answer'
The person who sees us is the photographer; we are the subject.. we don't necessarily have a particular blind spot towards ourselves, but it seems many people are less willing to see some of their good aspects (eg. some people find it hard to accept compliments). Simply, given everyone perceives things differently, the way we see ourselves is probably not exactly matched by anyone else. Given that anyone prefers to be with people they like or see goodness in, logically each person is allocated the position of being their own worst critic.
Righto, this is getting slightly ridiculous, so, signing out.
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