“The most influential person you’ll talk to every day is you. So be careful what you say to yourself?(Zig Ziglar)
The ability to stop and reflect on who we are and how we act is a sign of maturity, we all self-criticize from time to time, but knowing how to do it is an important factor, which helps us feel better about ourselves. .
- The Royal Spanish Academy defines the word self-criticism as the critical judgment of one’s attitudes or behaviors.
- But beyond this definition.
- Self-criticism is a concept that plays the role of the sword of Damocles: if we use it correctly.
- It helps that we grow and improve as people; but if we take it on the more negative and non-constructive side.
- It can be devastating.
- Especially when it comes to relationships with others.
- That is.
- Depending on how we talk through the inner language of thoughts.
- We will feel one way or another.
Healthy self-criticism is the practice of becoming aware of mistakes and mistakes themselves, accepting them and proposing to correct them, or at least mitigating them as much as possible, is in a way a self-assessment, both negative and negative. the positive, of our attitudes, thoughts and feelings, through which we have initiated a learning process in order to improve this characteristic that we were criticizing, thus being closely linked to the concept of personal improvement. Healthy self-criticism is a very important tool to get to know each other better, thus increasing our self-esteem.
In this way, the criticism that is made to it is necessary and useful; however, it is one thing to use it as a means of learning and another to do it in a pathological and inappropriate way, judge yourself, blame yourself and consider. almost all of their own attitudes as unforgivable mistakes; in such cases, self-criticism becomes a negative inner voice, which continually judges and attacks, as if we had a tortuous relationship with ourselves. The difference between these types of self-criticism lies in the feeling and behavior resulting from their practice. While healthy or positive self-criticism allows us to grow, negative self-criticism condemns us, leading to the development of low self-esteem.
If we stopped more often and listened, observing our inner language, we could be aware of the abuses we were inflicting and from there, rather than whipping ourselves with negative self-criticism, which immobilizes us, with feelings like guilt. and shame, we would begin to accept mistakes as learning and as a bridge to overcome.
“Should we learn to be our best friends, because we fall too easily into the trap of becoming our worst enemies?(Roderick Thorp)
Image courtesy of Felix Holland