Seeing “criticism” as a guest who needs to be allowed in, taken care of but taken to a quiet basement

We don’t need more criticism from ourselves or from others. Criticism never made us better.

Other people don’t need criticism from us. We have never helped anyone by criticising them.

But too frequently, criticism come our way uninvited. Just like sickness, problems with relationships, lousy weather……………they all come without any warning or without our invitation. So we still have to take care of them.

When they land in our laps, we have a choice. We can use them to transform negative feelings into something positive, or we can be paralysed by them.

One way to look at them is to tell the criticism” “thank you for coming to visit me. Please common in.  I don’t have any space in the living room. I am not going to fight you because if I fight you, you are going to become an even bigger monster and create more trouble. I am not going to resent you because if I do, I will become even more unhappy. I will simply open the door, let you in and take you to a quiet place, perhaps in the basement, and let you rest quietly there while I go back to have fun with my other room guests. I will not forget you but I will not pay too much attention to you because I have other more cheerful and helpful guests to entertain.”

The house party continues.