I talk about myself too much!

There. I've said it. I ADMIT IT! This is not something I am unaware of. It is my ultimate fatal flaw. It makes me appear narcissistic, self-centered, selfish, uncaring, and all kinds of other not-so-nice adjectives. People say I over-share and assume people find me more interesting and more important than I am. And I'm not even going to try to defend myself or say that any of these things are untrue. I suppose they all are to an extent. I will say that I am also some other very nice adjectives, but there I am being narcissistic again.

The real question is how can I change this? I do try to ask people about their days, remember things about their lives, listen to their rants... the problem is the word "try." I'm not always very successful. This is where a therapist would ask "Why do you think you have this problem? What did this manefest from?" And I could answer, but then I would be making excuses, trying to defend myself, and not really solving the problem. Psychology classes, therapy, and acting methods (I am actually "classically trained" in the methods of Uta Haagen, Stanaslavski...). Now I think this works for acting methods and therapy. However, I could talk my past to death and never change my behavior. The point is that I want to learn to make other people feel like I am interested in them. I have to stop assuming that people will just tell me about themselves. On the other hand, I don't want to completely stop talking about myself because I think that's also pointless.

Why the sudden concern? It's not so sudden, actually. I've known about this problem of mine for a long time. I also know that when I'm nervous or in a new environment or getting into a new relationship I tend to do it even more than usual. It prevents me from making friends, having successful relationships, getting into relationships... And I'm moving. Obviously now is a good time to address the problem. Sure, it might have been a good idea to work on it before, but I never really needed to. My friends love me (I hope) and tell me when to shut up.

On another note (or maybe not so far off) there was a Lunar Eclipse this weekend and I was so distracted by issues with my beau that I forgot all about it. Or I knew, but I decided to deal with him instead... either way, I wish I had taken the time. Eclipses are so rare and so cool. And if you believe in these things it could have some effect on what was happening. I don't really believe much in Astrology, but I heard today that one of the lessons of this moon was "surrender." Maybe I should just surrender. I'm not really sure what that means.