Of Narcissism.. and Self-Belief

I shall tell you a story. (A very short one, I promise 😛 ) Some of you may already know this one. This story is derived from Greek mythology.

Narcissus was a very handsome lad, quite famous for his looks actually. He was also very proud of this. One day, he went hunting with his friends and happened to look at his own reflection in a pool of clear water. He promptly fell in love with his own reflection. Needless to say, this was a doomed relationship. Apparently quite frustrated, Narcissus wilted and died soon after.

The word Narcissism is derived from this lad’s name.Now,   a bit more about narcissism – Dictionary.com defines narcissism as :

a) inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity                 b) Psychoanalysis. erotic gratification derived from admiration of one’s own physical or   mental attributes

How fitting a tribute…I’d say, eh?

Our generation has drawn a lot of flak for being a selfie-obsessed, narcissistic lot. Now personally I would say that too much of an obsession with selfies maybe called selfish (pun intended) 😛 ..but whatever makes one happy, right? Yours truly has also been guilty of posting a selfie or two, as social media would testify…and is quite unapologetic about it  😉

Well,we do need to look out for ourselves, and an iota of selfishness is needed to stay alive.We can trick our brain into believing in something – if we repeat it long enough.(The Repetition Principle) In many situations self belief provides us with a parachute when the world throws us off the plane. We live in a world that is often hostile and a  little self belief does do a world of good 😉 ..but many a times,the demarcation between being narcissistic and believing in yourself gets blurred.At that very opportune moment the “holier-than-thou attitude” raises its ugly head in our consciousness.We stop growing , and stagnate as a person. Let me not even talk about the effect it has on people around you 😛

For me.. self belief is to be aware of who and what you are and what are your positives; as well as knowing what are your areas of improvement and working on getting better at them. It’s always good to remind ourselves that no one is perfect and that there would be always someone else..who will be  better than you at (insert random activity that you think you have mastered ) 😀

Life is beautiful and has so much to offer – let us never stop growing and always believe in ourselves, and not get restricted by the pool of water a la Narcissus! 🙂