Praise verses condemnation.
You happily accept the one and eschew the other. You have grown accustomed to reacting to
praise with positive emotions. As a
child, those who were important to you stroked you as they said loving things
about you. Perhaps words of condemnation
were accompanied by negative vibrations which triggered accompanying emotions. Can you see the cause and effect at play
here?
All words are neutral.
It is how the mind processes them that causes the hormonal and thus
emotional reaction. Praise and condemnation
are equal. They are merely words. When you can learn to not let either affect
how much love you feel for yourself, then the love you feel for yourself will
not waver.
This reminds me of the childhood rhyme, "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me".
ReplyDeleteI always thought that this simplistic saying is so incorrect. Words can hurt so much more than physical injury. As a child and now, as an adult I still react emotionally to 'words' of criticism targeted at me. I have always known intellectually that I should not let words upset me, but didn't realize that I have a real choice in how to react to them.
Now, I am going to be cognizant of my reactions. It will be a big challenge but one I want to take on - I want to do this for me; the me that deserves better. I deserve love and acceptance.