Critical comments by others are impossible to avoid. How we deal with them, however, is entirely up to us. Keys to Processing Critical Comments By Karen Ulvestad Words carry power and affect our day-to-day life. The challenge lies in acknowledging the words without internalizing them. Often, harsh and critical comments and words are behavior related as observed by another person. It’s our job to know the difference and grow from the experience. It’s easy to internalize critical comments made by other people and think it’s about our personality. There is a difference between behavior and the self. The self is our true essence. All the lessons from the behavior we have experienced in our lives, and other people’s issues we hang onto. The truth is that it is a challenge to recognize the difference between a behavior related issue or “self” issues when we don’t know any difference between the two. The more self-aware we become, the easier this is to see in an interaction with another person. Several steps can be used to differentiate between behavior issues and self. Processing Critical Comments Key #1 – Knowing Self Knowing one’s self is the best way to change the effects of critical or harsh words. It’s the process of knowing our true essence is not what other people see. They see us through their filters and biases. The words are a reflection of what they feel about themselves, not us. When we know our self, we tap into the Universal Life force energies and know that we are part of everything. Our view changes, hence we change our “reaction” to the words of others. We see others as their entities, it becomes easier to look at their words, and we internalize less of the negativity. Processing Critical…
