The sweet gift of self-deception

self-de·cep·tion • n. the action or practice of allowing oneself to believe that a false or unvalidated feeling, idea, or situation is true

When you read the dictionaries’ definition of self-deception you might wonder why I have called it a sweet gift. Surely there can be nothing good about allowing oneself to believe untrue things? Haven’t we been taught to value truth above anything?

Well, I’m not going to take you all down a philosophical path discussing morality and the eternal questions. All I want to do is shed a little light on how a certain amount of self-deception makes my life much happier.

Here are a few examples:

It’s ok to have a BigMac as long as I gulp it down with diet Coke. The calories sort of cancel each other out. (I do seem to remember from math that pluss and minus equal minus…)

I’m really a very punctual person. If I didn’t have two kids to get ready in the morning I would always be at work on time. (My boss is now raising his left eyebrow)

Every now and then I experience that one of my pants have shrunk in the washer. Don’t you hate when that happens? Your favorite pair of jeans suddenly feels like they are cutting you off at the middle. I immediately go out to buy a new pair and complain to my husband about our washer. It’s just very unreliable.

I’m actually quite intellectual and would prefer to watch the news and panel debates on TV. It’s just that my husband prefers watching Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and the Bachelor…

As long as I wear black, I'll look skinny... (Yes, it's true!) I'm also pretty sure that big hair will make my butt look smaller.

If I just invite people at nighttime, with lots of candles and flowers spread all around, they won’t notice the dust bunnies breeding like crazy under the coffee-table.

I don´t spend too much money shopping. I only shop the bare necessities. (Like things for the kids, things for the house, things for my husband, things for my friends, things for myself and things on sale...)

A good friend of mine loves Snowballs (kokosboller). She’ll eat many of them and proclaims that they are made out of coco, which is a fruit, and that you should eat five fruits a day! (I´m quite sure that coco isn't a fruit, it's probably a nut... but hey, who am I to burst her bubble!)

Ibsen said: If you take the life lie (self-deception) from an average man, you take away his happiness as well. I have found this to be quite true. (I wouldn’t call myself average of course. I have always considered myself kind of unique!)

If you want to be happy about yourself and your circumstances a healthy dose of self-deception might be exactly what you need!

I know what I need: the yummy oatmeal raisin cookies that I baked today. And they are very, very healthy... I mean they have oatmeal! And raisins! (And there is NO chocolate in them whatsoever!) My guess is that they have as many calories as an apple. Which means I can eat five...

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