Are you hard on yourself? Is someone else hard on you? Are there people in your life who are constantly telling you what's wrong with you or giving you suggestions on how you "should" do things? I hear this a lot in my practice. Some times a person can get so used to other people treating them this way that they begin to treat themselves this way too. For example, they will say things like "I'm so stupid for doing that!" or "I'm really bad at that." How does this make a person feel to hear these kinds of comments or say such things to themselves? How is that helpful?
Let's look instead at the above saying. "Criticism should rectify errors or improve judgement." There is a place for criticism in our lives. I actually prefer to call it a "critque." Why? Because a critique sounds more helpful than criticism. Feedback can be really useful if it is actually constructive. It is valuable to know what we have done well in addition to areas we need to improve.
The next time some one is being critical of you or you are doing it to yourself ask "Does this help me in any way and point the way to a better path?" If not, that criticism failed in its intended purpose. You might want to "critique" whoever is offering the criticism.
