Welcome to “Healing From Within.” I am your host Sheryl Glick (http://sherylglick.com) author of
The Living Spirit which shares stories of spiritual awakenings,
spiritual communication, healing energies, miracles, and ways to go
within to find your true self. Today I am delighted to welcome Nancy Van
Dyken author of Everyday Narcissism -Yours Mine and Ours.
Listeners of this show have become aware over the years that my guests
and I share intimate experiences, insights and awareness of our
emotional spiritual and physical realities hoping to know more about the
human condition and to find ways for greater self-investigation and for
mastering our emotions for movement towards self-actualization and
higher consciousness.
In today’s episode of “Healing From Within” Nancy Van Dyken (http://www.nancyvandyken.com) a licensed
psychologist and clinical social worker working with couples, parents,
and teens with depression and anxiety, will help us with a clear
definition of Narcissism and talk about the five myths that are the
focus of the book. She offers ways to build boundaries, suggests healing
activities, and shows us how to recognize the differences between
Everyday Narcissism and a more serious condition Clinical Narcissism.
Nancy shares what she believes was a motivating force for all she has
strived for in life and in learning to know and accept herself with
greater love and that person was her very kind and gentle father who
rarely, if ever, reprimanded her or stopped her from using her own
intuitive and instinctive needs to shine her light into the world with
boldness and courage. Sheryl tells Nancy she was lucky to have a father
who was also quiet but knew when to speak in order to correct any
injustice or lack of action by others. Certainly they were examples of
how to live with grace and honor.
Nancy tells us that this is the first and only book on healing everyday
narcissism an extremely common condition that limits our happiness—and
that most people aren’t even aware of. Nearly all of us are everyday
narcissists: you, me, our friends and children, our parents, partners,
neighbors and co-workers We must know how to recognize it and heal it.
This is not a book about narcissistic personality disorder called
Clinical Narcissism.. This book would be good for anyone who feels lost
or confused about their direction in life or uncertain about who they
are, or anyone having trouble in a relationship, with a partner,
coworker, family member of loved one, and anyone who wants more
happiness and freedom. Psychologists social workers counselors and
clergy should all be aware of the five myths that we are taught in
childhood and which often cause us great pain over the course of our
lifetime.
Nancy Van Dyken turns the growing problem of narcissism around by
helping us look at ourselves rather than judging everyone else. As a
result we find it easier to nurture ourselves while paying better
attention to our relationships. The forward of Nancy’s book Everyday
Narcissism talks about neglecting ourselves and then of course there may
be some who do nothing but focus on themselves. Either of those emphasis
would ultimately limit our level of well being.
Nancy writes, “Carrying the well-being of others on your shoulders?
Heavy isn’t it? Meanwhile a very important life is being neglected.
Yours. We humans take extraordinary measures to feel safe, even
sacrificing awareness of our truest selves in order to follow explicit
and implicit rules. On that path we can stray far from our authentic
center that we don’t know that we’ve lost ourselves. Our own false self
then relates to the false selves of others. My cat can’t read Even if I
could bear to punish or withdraw from him and used my best skills to
teach him he still would be unable to read and imagine how our
relationship would be affected were I to continue to expect him to live
up to my expectations.
