Are You Able to Take Praise Gracefully?

If there is self-doubt then you won’t be able to take it gracefully

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Most of the articles cover the topic of handling criticism gracefully but I am of the opinion that along with criticism one should be able to handle praise gracefully as well. When the praise by another person is sincere one should acknowledge it with grace and properly thank the other person for their reverence. If the person receiving praise has a poor self-image then he won’t be able to take the praise positively and might hide under the false belief that it is a good practice to downplay the praise.

There is an emotion behind the praise

A person who is praising you obviously has been touched by some of your acts and would like to express his gratitude by doing so. It becomes utterly important that you acknowledge the feelings of the other person and accept his praise gracefully.

It would give an indication that your act that moved the other person was not guided by any selfish interest. Your act was selfless and you did not do it to impress the other person.

Self-doubt obstructs graceful acceptance

“A person who does not value himself and has a poor self-image would not be able to accept praise gracefully. Either he will become too excited or simply downplay the praise.”

Praise would excite a person when he would use it as a tool to prove himself worthy to someone else. Such people generally have some inferiority complex and would use the praise as a mechanism to have a bout of excitement to feel good. There might be a section of people who would dislike him and the praise would be a way of proving them wrong.

People who downplay the praise generally have self-doubt and do not consider themselves worthy of receiving praise. Our mind is quite consistent. If there are feelings of guilt or shame then the mind will not allow the person to be the center of attention. Being revered makes the person open themselves to others and people with self-doubt would not like that to happen. Hence the automatic mechanism adopted by the mind is to downplay the praise not realizing that by doing so he is not properly acknowledging the feelings of the person making the praise.

How to become graceful?

The way a person tries to be graceful in case of criticism similarly he should be graceful in accepting the praise as well. This would require the person to remove all negative blockages from his subconscious mind and let himself run loose to lead a life in his own way. The process of catharsis and refinement of the inner child goes a long way in releasing the emotional charge and subsequently changing the belief to bring about complete inner transformation.

Example: Ram attended a function and was quite uncomfortable in it. He feared being praised by others and hence sat on the sidelines expecting no one to talk to him. Ram had accomplished a lot in his life but had quite a lot of self-doubt and guilt within himself. These negative blockages restricted him from being the center of attention. During the whole party, he avoided talking to people and hence was successful in not being the center of attention.

Later Ram realized that he cannot lead his life in this manner. He applied the process of catharsis and removed all emotional charges related to similar incidents from the past where he felt fearful. Thereafter he realized that his sexual desires since early age were the reason for most of his guilt and fear. He changed his belief to realize that such sexual desires are good for him and that he should be proud of it. Thereafter his inner transformation was complete.

A few weeks later Ram attended another function and this time he did not hesitate to be the center of attention. People praised him for all his accomplishments and he too accepted the praise in a graceful manner. Ram now values himself and considers himself worthy of leading his life in a manner that suits his tendencies. There is an increased sense of self-esteem and confidence.

Conclusion

It is not always the case that one needs to be taught to take criticism gracefully. If a person is not able to take praise gracefully then it also signifies that the person is lacking self-esteem and that he has some form of self-doubt. The process of catharsis and refinement of the inner child should be applied to get rid of the negative blockages and free the person of any fear and guilt. The person then would be able to take praise gracefully thus acknowledging the feelings of the person doing the praise along with giving an indication that he did the act selflessly and that he really deserves the praise.