How To Overcome The Fear Of Being Criticized?

Have you ever felt convicted? How did it make you feel? You may have developed a fear of being criticized after a difficult situation. No one likes to be judged, especially when people judge us for something that is difficult for us to digest.

However, there are different types of criticism. Not all criticism is bad, and it is important to keep that in mind. Constructive criticism, for example, can help us to improve in many aspects of our lives. Although we may not always be receptive to it, it is important to take constructive criticism into account in order to grow as human beings.

Fear of being criticized

When people criticize us, we see it as a personal attack. Some people take the judgment as something painful and even embarrassing. This can make them defensive because they want to protect themselves.

Have you ever stopped to think about why someone told you what they did? There must be a reason! Instead of immediately being on the defensive, you should stop and think about why the person is criticizing you and what you can learn from it.

If you calm down and let things fall into place, you may see that criticism can help you improve several aspects of behavior and thought processes.

On the other hand, the other person may be wrong. If you are dealing with this case, it is important to say what you have on your mind confidently instead of accepting everything the other person says so that they do not judge you. Doing this can make them feel like they can manipulate you into thinking what they want and lower your self-esteem.

Accepting criticism in a proper way is appropriate

The first step in helping you lose the fear of being criticized is to learn to accept criticism. This is something you can achieve by reacting calmly before a verdict. The benefits of staying calm when someone criticizes you are:

• You learn to control your negative emotions.
• You do not feel attacked.
• This will also help you learn to free yourself from it.

Being calm when someone criticizes you can help you receive criticism more effectively. This has many benefits:

• It allows you to assess whether the verdict is true and useful, or whether the person is just trying to manipulate you.

• If it is useful, you can learn from it and not ruin your relationship with that person.
• If it is helpful but the person did not express it correctly, you can show them the right way to say things.
• Criticism can be an attempt at manipulation. In that case, the other person will feel uneasy about you staying calm.
• By not filling yourself with rage, you are not showing your weaknesses.
• If you behave calmly, you assure yourself that you are the master of your own behavior. If you have made a mistake, do not be afraid to tell it as it is. If you do not have it, you politely confirm it. If the other person continues to argue, be careful not to fall into the trap.
• This allows us to succeed in an unpleasant situation.

What negative thoughts get in the way of overcoming the fear of being criticized?

There are several thoughts that can go against you when you try to meet your fear of being criticized. Changing these thoughts will make you stop caring so much about criticism.

Thoughts about yourself

“I messed it up again, I’m so hopeless!”, “I’m so embarrassed, I failed once again. By thinking this way, you think that you must be the best at everything and that you are a failure if you ever make a mistake.

You should replace these thoughts with rational thoughts such as: “I think I made a mistake, but first I will check what I did wrong. I have the right to make mistakes. This does not make me a bad person, it only makes me human ”.

Thoughts on the situation

“This is such an unpleasant and humiliating situation. I can not cope with this, I have to go. ” Now the belief behind this statement is that things must always be simple and comfortable. They must go as you have planned.

But this would be the rational thought: “This situation is unpleasant, there is no doubt about it. But do I really have to run away? Wouldn’t it be better if I met it face to face? ” It is important that you do not run away at the first opportunity when things get tough. Remember that difficult situations are the ones that can make you grow.

Thoughts about the other person

“You humiliate me. All you want to do is expose my mistakes. ” This makes you think that bad people deserve to be punished. It also makes you think that others must always give you what you want and need. If they do not, they are useless to you.

You can change that thought and make it a more rational thought. For example: “I can not read people’s thoughts, so I can not really know their true intentions. What if they just want to joke with me? If that is the case, I must remember that people are not always the way they should be. I’m not perfect either ”.

As you can see, it is possible to overcome the fear of being criticized. To do so, however, you must change certain thoughts so that you can accept criticism and respond calmly to it.