Expert: Justin Choo - 10/10/2008

Question
Hi

I am grappling with my low-self esteem which causes me to live my life in a negative way: making poor quality decisions, rusing into things think ill of myself, not doing the things that I am required to do in my personal life and in my work life, and I am very self-critical. I am exploring the notion of acceptance, particularly applied to my self. My problem is: how do I cope with/deal with other people's criticism of me? I take oit very badly when other criticise me and it makes me depressed and angry towrds them, even when the criticism is justified or resulting for my low-self-esteem.

I would be grate ful for your help

Answer
Hi James,

Most of us suffer from lack of self-esteem at one time or another.  It is quite natural to experience bouts of negative tendency.  From my experience, I got a lot of help from reading "self-improvement" books.  They are written mostly by professional motivation gurus.  A lot of materials you read there conforms to the Buddha's teachings, except that they were written in a very skillful approach that the readers can relate to them effectively.   Why not give it a try?

Just a short comment before I part.  Lack of self-esteem is a problem of the mind.  The Buddha taught us to cultivate our mind to gain inner peace.  The motivation gurus also make use of this concept to change our mindset.  The famous motivation guru Napolian Hill in his "Think and grow rich" made this very famous statement:
"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it will achieve."

You can also!!

Justin Choo

[I like to invite you to visit my blog:]
http://lifeislikethat999.blogspot.com/

[And this blog by Rev. Dhammika:]
http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/