Hello Ray,

I felt very much like you do when I was your age – I think hormones have a lot to do with it! I love that you are optimistic and ready to find the positive in most situations and I think that attitude helps in understanding that critical or constructive remarks are hard for everyone to accept graciously. You know your mum loves you and wants the best for you, so I think reminding yourself of that fact will help you when she says something that you don’t like.

Whenever I feel like reacting negatively to a criticism, I take a deep breath and often choose to say nothing. If I can do this even for a few moments I find the desire to get upset or yell recedes. It takes practice, but it does work. Often, too even though you say you are not comfortable with it, just expressing how you feel to the other person really, really helps. For example, “I understand what you are saying, but I having difficulty accepting that right now.” or using your own words from above, “I’m working on accepting criticism, but its a bit difficult.”

I hope this helps,

Love and peace,

Marilyn

Your mom’s been through that stage….she understands you…also remember when she tells you something its for your own good….Learned it from my own experience..:)

emotional mastery is a skill that is developed over time. It’s impossible to master it over night. But if you make the CHOICE every single moment of your life to control your emotions to what you want them to be then you will get better and better to the point of mastery. Not only will this benefit your relationships currently but it will benefit you as a person over all for a lifetime, so it’s very good that you are taking this into serious consideration because the people who are ready to sacrifice who they are for what they will become is the person who will be exposed to the truth.

My friend, you are a wonderful person capable of wonderful things in life, remember that. I wish you the best!

http://www.lesterdc.com

Ray,

I guess I’m going to step out of the common responses here and say that emotions aren’t to be controlled. The best thing to do with feelings is feel them. All they want is attention, and they’ll typically dissipate pretty quickly once they get that. To be clear, feelings need attention from YOU. Acknowledge them.

Instead of trying to control your feelings, perhaps you’d be better served to control your actions. This is much easier to do when you acknowledge your feelings and then make a conscious choice about how you’ll respond to them instead of just reacting to the feelings you’re trying to repress.

Hope that helps!

Britt