The high cost of self-absorption

In a recent article in Psychology Today, Leon F. Seltzer, PhD. wrote about the high cost of self-absorption.  Below you will find a few of the negative effects that come from over-involvement with yourself:

• According to Catrina McFate, the Dalai Lama—based on a lecture he attended at a New York symposium on Buddhism and meditation—has noted that “people who have the tendency to use more self-referential terms (I, me, myself) tend to have more health problems and earlier deaths.” (“Feeling Depressed? Maybe You’re Just Self-Absorbed,” elephantjournal.com, 04/19/2010)
• As many writers have noted, our relationships are damaged, sometimes irreparably, by a self-preoccupation that undermines the closeness, or intimacy, that all relationships require if they’re to be nurturing and resilient.
• Constant self-absorption undermines our capacity for empathy and true understanding of the thoughts, feelings, needs, and desires of others. It’s difficult to clearly appreciate the world that exists outside ourselves when most of the time our focus is directed inwards. 
• As long as we continue, pretty much on a daily basis, to obsess about all things personal, happiness, contentment, and a stable sense of well-being will be impossible to achieve.

Read more about this topic here