06/12/2023

Nine Ways to Combat Self-criticism

The tendency to engage in negative self-evaluation afflicts almost everyone

A greatest-hits soundtrack produced by self-criticism would sound something like this: You should have done better on that project. Why isn’t the house cleaner? You tanked the whole soccer game! You’re a bad parent, an even worse colleague, and a sorry excuse for a friend. And you’re wasting so much time right now that you’ll be late—again.

The tendency to engage in negative self-evaluation afflicts almost everyone, sometimes profoundly.

"People treat their self-criticism as though it’s part of themselves, like their eye color," said Rachel Turow, a Seattle-based clinical psychologist and author of The Self-Talk Workout. "They say, 'Oh, I've just always been my own worst critic.’ And a lot of people don’t realize how damaging it is."

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.