Eliminate needless Shame

I was sitting in my room and I noticed that I was talking to myself. Out loud. The moment I noticed I was doing it, I started to feel a little embarrassed and ashamed. Society looks down upon people who talk to themselves. It looks “weird” because it seems so pointless. Why talk out loud when you can think? It seems you shouldn’t need to hear yourself.

For the first time in my life, instead of just feeling stupid, I asked myself, “Why do I talk out loud sometimes when I’m by myself?” I realized that I often imagine having conversations with other people. I create scenarios in my head about what someone might say, and then I practice giving different answers. Sometimes I actually speak my answer out loud. I don’t use my full voice but I do make a sound. Anyway, although many people might find it weird, I realized that I actually enjoy “talking to myself” occasionally. I don’t want to quit and I don’t see any reason why I should quit. It’s certainly harmless and it makes it easier for me to think clearly.

I then realized that the stupidest part of the whole thing, and the real problem, was that I felt ashamed about talking to myself. It’s just so ridiculous for me to feel guilty, ashamed, or embarrassed about something that is true about me and I don’t want to change.

I’m sure everyone has certain thoughts or a habit that they feel ashamed of, but have no intention of changing. If the habit isn’t hurting anyone or yourself, just keep it and don’t worry about what other people think of it. It’s just lowering your self esteem for no reason. Think of some habit or thought that you have that you don’t wish to change but you feel ashamed of. Think about how that shame is so pointless and destructive. If you can just realize how pointless it is, it will probably help you to eliminate your shame in the future. It’s really a big relief. Then after you finish that, look at another area of your life where you have needless shame and eliminate that too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 5:33 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.