Step 3: Accept criticism as beneficial

Welcome!

Thank you for joining me on this 12-step journey towards increasing your Creative flow and reducing stress.

I’m Rita, and I am a Healer and a teacher. It’s my calling to help people evolve, elevate and expand their thinking. I help people to heal through natural modalities that fall outside of traditional medicine. That’s exactly what you will find here, so I hope you’ll stay!

Today we will cover Step 3 to increase flow of Creative Energy and reduce stress for a higher quality of living.

Learn to spot an Ego script that is harmful and re-write the script

We live in a hyper-sensitive world right now, where one might not feel truly free to say, do, or be whom they want without receiving criticism, backlash, anger, or judgement.

In order to navigate such temperamental waters, it is crucial that you free yourself from your own criticism, backlash, anger, and judgement. These can be toward yourself or toward others.

Acknowledge and accept

You may not believe that you are critical, judgmental, angry, or otherwise. “What criticisms?” you might say.

They are there, buried deep down in your unconscious. They form the script from which your inner and outer dialogue stem; just a part of who you are when you are being authentically you.

The first step toward acknowledging and accepting criticism is to first recognize it within yourself.

In order to do this you must practice, practice, practice stepping outside of your Ego – the seat of internal parenting and Self-preservation – and re-write your script.

Take a moment to recognize the judgements, criticisms, anger, and backlash in your own words and behaviors that you have toward yourself and others. Then, take as long as you need to acknowledge the feelings and let them pass over you. This is a very different experience than stuffing them down (akin to switching the subject when you experience uncomfortable feelings).

It is common, and even OK, to feel angry with yourself for any number of reasons that may have contributed to feelings of powerlessness.

These feelings are meant to be acted upon, not acted out.

Dealing with criticisms

Criticisms are often Ego-driven and dished in an unhealthy manner, and are therefore received with a bad taste in the mouth.

Especially harmful criticisms are typically the result of a person acting straight from their internal script. This script is our own personal compilation of rules, admonishments, fears, and agreements that we stored up in our subconscious during the first seven years of Life.

As you begin to awaken, you will become more away of your inner dialogue and will begin to recognize when a criticism is coming from an Ego script and not meant to be helpful.

Find a place within yourself to accept it – however salty or bitter it may taste – rather than get defensive. This will help your Energy centers remain open and flowing with light energy, which will keep you feeling in balance and flow throughout your day.

The following are specifically chosen tools for dealing with criticisms during your Journey toward Self-rediscovery.

Write them down, post them where you can see them, and remember them:

• Receive the criticism all the way through and get it over with.

• Jot down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases bother you.

• Jot down notes on what concepts or phrases seem useful or could be useful to you in the future.

• Do something very nurturing for yourself – for example, recall a compliment or praise, take a few deep breaths, or step outside for a few minutes.

• Remember that even if you have made a truly rotten mistake, the criticism may be a necessary stepping-stone to get you to the next level in your Life.

• Take a moment to examine the criticism. Does it remind you of any criticism from your past – particularly a shaming childhood criticism? Acknowledge to yourself that the current criticism is triggering grief over a long-standing wound.

• Write a letter to the critic – not to be sent, most probably. Defend your perspective and acknowledge what was helpful, if anything, in the criticism.

• Get back on the horse. Make an immediate commitment to store the gleaned information and use it to help you the next time these feelings arise.

• And most importantly, be kind and gracious with yourself.

If you can spend enough time recognizing within yourself your own judgements, criticisms, or anger, you are more likely to spot them in others. Once you begin to notice these behaviors in others, you will be able to apply what you have learned here to help you to evolve to the next level in your Life.

Until next time,

 

Interested in starting from the beginning of this 12-step journey? Catch up here:

12 steps to a more creative and stress-free Life

Step 1: Reframe negative beliefs

Step 2: Nurture your Self