Coping with criticism

How well do you cope with criticism from family, friends or colleagues? You have worked hard to improve your self esteem only to find yourself facing a barrage of criticism. Being able to listen and how understanding of the person's thoughts could be beneficial although your first response might be just to stridently defend yourself or deflect blame elsewhere. Even when criticism has been exaggerated and insensitive there might be an insight which you previously lacked and can enable you to improve. Feelings of hurt and vulnerability might be unavoidable but is there some action that can be taken in this situation beyond becoming entrenched in an argument or worse still saying something which undermines the relationship. As we get closer to people criticism should be seen as problematic per se although we should always have an awareness that the person criticizing us might be experiencing depression or anxiety for a reason unconnected with you; of course criticism could be the result of a deficit in empathy with the criticizer or even part of a chronic pattern of narcissistic abuse. So breathe, reflect calmly and feel comfortable about criticism being part of life and be confident that you have some thought out approaches for dealing with it in a way that preserves your self respect and respect for others as well as having a healthy desire to improve and succeed at a multitude of tasks.