Happy & Healthy

HOW ELSE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?

It's a bit like a selfie. When you see it back, you think: what the heck, but I don't look like that, do I? Your self-image sometimes deviates a million miles away from what someone else sees in or about you (which is a good thing, because being all over the place about yourself is such a hassle). But how can that be? No clue, but really nothing.

‘You radiate such calm,’ said our dearest Theo just the other day. My first reaction was to scream with laughter and do a lap around the editorial floor. But then I saw he was dead serious. Me? That little person with a hundred thousand (in proper dialect) extremely illogical thoughts? You should know that I don't immediately think of calm when I scrutinize my mind. I may look quite calm, but it doesn't always feel that way. How can that be?

Appearance-wise, it makes sense that you see yourself differently. The trick box in your brain focuses with the left hemisphere when you look at yourself and with the right part when you see someone else. And it just so happens that the eye for detail is stored in the left. So all those tiny pimples, split ends, centimeters of roots, and little fats that we worry so much about, someone else doesn't even see. Or well, you hope so in the name of science. But if you type very plainly into Google: ‘why does someone else see you differently?’, you get as a related search query ‘learn to love yourself in twelve steps’. That kind of profound life lessons is exactly what I wasn't looking for, Mr. Google. Exit search screen. Let's go with common sense then. You know what I always try? To be myself. This is it, boys and girls, take it or leave it. And if you leave me, then it's better for me not to take you. Something like that.

‘You radiate such calm,’

What's nice about being yourself (if it works)? No one can say anything different about that. Finding something about yourself is the other side of the story, right, folks? But, if you find something, then you have to report it to the police, I've been taught. And now that I'm letting that ‘calm radiating’ sink in, it's pretty awesome. No matter how busy it is, I feel calm. So no substantiated pointer in this intrigue, except that I look like calm (which makes me quite relaxed). By the way, if you want to come across as the smartest at work, Kiek has some smart tips.

I recently heard a nice person say that not knowing is a great trait. According to her, everyone thinks they are much more than they actually are. Do you get it? I think it sounds plausible. So I am it, but it's even nicer that I don't know it about myself. And we just won't talk about those silly selfies anymore.