Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. I want to talk about something that can be really challenging for all of us. If we in any ways expose ourselves to other people, we can face their criticism.

And it can be hard.

I mean, unless we're a hermit living in a cave or a cell and no one interacts with

us, we're going to get criticism from other people sometimes.

And I don't think there's really any way to avoid it.

I was looking at Amazon this week and there was a book I wanted to purchase and I noticed the author had gotten a very critical review and he responded to it in kind.

And then this week in the media there was a famous actress, same thing.

She was complaining about how cruel and mean critics can be when they leave

comments, particularly anonymous comments, about her on the internet. So we really can't escape

it if we're in any way going to put ourselves out there by helping others, helping at school, doing work, whatever we do, we are going to run across people that criticize us. And sadly in today's age too, because of the internet

and because of people leaving anonymous comments, there can be some very harsh ones out

there. And the truth is they can be some very harsh ones out there.

And the truth is they can have some very devastating impact on people too.

If you're not familiar with it, there's been many people around where I live and around the world

who are in high school and their peers have left some very harsh, cruel cyberbullying they call it against them and they ended up committing suicide.

So it's not a minor issue.

It's not something that's not a big deal.

It matters.

We all know what it feels like to have people criticize us.

And I think particularly in today's age because of the internet, it's much easier to get criticism from other people, and they can do it very anonymously.

People can be very cruel and they don't think about the impact it has on another person.

And none of us really are exempt for it.

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