John Mayer posted a dazzling new blog "From the Heart" today, inspired by travel outside the country and a lot of "self conscious" reflection.

"This is about a level of self consciousness so high in my generation, that it's actually toxic," he says, making examples of the self-obsessed myspace user, the falsely confident American Idol contestant, and Perez Hilton, who "maintains a celebrity blog that subsists on tearing other people down but who has wrestled with a lifelong battle for acceptance as a gay man."

But the kinda cool thing is John also makes fun of himself, contrasting his celebrity stardom with his dirty laundry pile, before fully outing himself for trying to seem "badass and unaffected" to cover up his insecurities:

"I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything."

John's says the problem facing our generation is "[being] told since birth that we were special" only to realize that "we're just not all that special, when you break it down."

"What now, then?" he asks. "Stop acting careless", "be vulnerable", "read", "root for others", and "give more" are all a part of his new motto (and advice) to be generally more honest about his feelings:

"Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way."

The blog is actually not bad food for thought. Sure, you could look at it as "self-indulgent", like Perez Hilton predictably weighed in. "Ok John Mayer, whatever you say. Now go back to your million dollar home and 15 BMWs..." But you could also give the guy credit for at least trying to be honest and philanthropic about something ... other than his 30 pairs of jeans!

On a side note, do you think John's attempts to cover up his insecurities this year can explain all of those weird paparazzi pranks he's been playing? Like this one...