Self-Deception: The Cure

As Ben Franklin said, “It is the easiest thing in the world for a person to deceive himself.” Self-deception is a human talent we have all practiced at one time or another–denial about our faults, our slow pace in personal growth, the danger of large and small addictions, how well we treat others. We deceive ourselves when we ruthlessly seek our wants, or use other people to obtain them. Why do we do it? And what is the cure? Find out here:

We lie to ourselves to shield our conscience from the truth. When we deceive ourselves, we are hurting ourselves the most. Such deception leads to the creation of a false self that protects us from confronting the truth.

The cure is pure honesty and humility. True humility never tolerates self-deception.

Interestingly enough, when we grow strong enough to confront our murkiest, scariest truths, we also liberate ourselves. In the glow of the resulting feelings of freedom and empowerment, it becomes easier to make the healthy changes we need to make.

Read more: Spirit, Guidance, Inspiration, Self-Help

Adapted from The Mystic Hours, by Wayne Teasdale (New World Library, 2004). Copyright (c) 2004 by Wayne Teasdale. Reprinted by permission of New World Library.
Adapted from The Mystic Hours, by Wayne Teasdale (New World Library, 2004).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Danuta W.

2:01AM PST on Feb 19, 2012

Thanks for the information

send a green star

Carole R.

1:34PM PST on Feb 4, 2012

Good article. Thank you for posting it.

Elisabeth T.

4:10PM PST on Jan 26, 2012

Good article, thank you..

KARLOLINA G.

11:33AM PDT on Oct 14, 2011

Thanks.

May H.

12:53PM PDT on Sep 21, 2011

Michele W.

6:29AM PDT on Sep 17, 2011

Thank you

Snezana M.

11:48AM PDT on Apr 10, 2011

Thanks

11:44AM PDT on Apr 10, 2011

Very good article. Thank you

Robert O.

1:20PM PST on Dec 9, 2010

Thank you.

Teresa W.

7:12AM PDT on Jun 17, 2010

Sometimes you hope for something and others say it's self-deception, but if you try hard enough, you may make it and show everybody your dream was quite realistic. This has already happened to me, so I know that what people call self-deception may be just difficult to achieve.