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10 Ways To Turn Criticism Into A Catalyst For Personal Growth
Is The Criticism A Perceived Threat?
“Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.” — Frank A. Clark.
Your heartbeat intensifies by the minute, beating so fast that the repercussions can be felt in the pit of your stomach. An overwhelming need to flee your body takes hold. Anxiety has a vice-like grip on you as you contemplate the criticism leveled against you that has come out of nowhere. What did you do to deserve this, you ask?
As you struggle to assimilate what transpired moments earlier, your body is caught in a fight-or-flight response. Your mind is racing with thoughts from torment to anger within seconds: “What does it mean?” “Am I really a bad person?” “How dare they?” “What would they know?”
Criticism strikes at the heart of our self-esteem like a wrecking ball. It can be insidious and demoralizing in the moments afterward as we come to terms with the situation at hand. Known as amygdala hijacking, it is a term coined by Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence, an area of the brain activated when there is a perceived emotional threat to our sense of well-being.
The resultant effect is a shutting down of the higher-thinking brain, the neocortex, which causes a flood of destructive emotions to permeate our body. Regrettably, as highly developed as our brain might be, the mind cannot distinguish between a genuine threat to our life and a perceived threat.
In other words, the brain identifies criticism as a perceived threat, hence the ensuing cocktail of toxic emotions accompanying this state. The following points will help you deal with criticism healthily without the subsequent proceeding reactions.
Respond In Kind When You Can
“I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” —…
