Self Criticism

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.” Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your...

Turn self-criticism into clarity, fear into guidance, and self-sabotage into confidence. Change begins when you choose to be your ally. Have you ever felt that just when you are about to move forward, something inside you suddenly hits the brakes? You procrastinate, hesitate, push yourself too hard, or fill your mind with excuses that sound logical… yet leave you standing in the same place. It is not a lack of discipline or a sign of weakness; it is your mind trying to protect you from fear, rejection, or the possibility of failure. This book invites you to understand that mechanism from ...

How to Fully Accept Yourself—Just As You Are Most of us have plenty of experience with self-blame and guilt—but we are often at a loss when it comes to forgiving ourselves. According to Colin Tipping, this is because our idea of forgiveness usually requires a victim and a perpetrator—which...

Perhaps you want to be nicer to yourself but don’t really know how to get there. Or maybe you’re someone who assumes self-criticism is a permanent part of your personality. Rest assured you’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with the toll that excessive self-criticism takes on their minds, energy levels, jobs, and relationships. And problems with self-talk vary dramatically from one person to the next: they can appear as mild but persistent inner criticism, full-blown self-loathing, or the pain of internalized oppression or abuse.

What if the problem isn’t that you’re failing at life—but that you’ve been using the wrong definition of perfection all along? In 2010, psychologist and author Pavel Somov introduced the idea of “ordinary perfection” in his book Present Perfect—a counterintuitive approach to self-acceptance that challenged the shame-driven logic of perfectionism. Over the next decade and a half, Somov continued testing, refining, stress-testing, and translating that idea into real-life clinical work with therapy clients, workshop audiences, and mental health professionals around the world. ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that "speaks to today’s social and political moment as directly as this morning’s headlines” (NPR). These pages give us her searing...

After writing the runaway best seller Not Nice, Dr. Aziz returns to tackle the biggest killer of confidence: your own inner critic. That voice in your head tells you that you can’t achieve what you want or be loved for who you are, because you’re not enough. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize just how much that negative voice is running their lives, creating stress, anxiety, perfectionism, relentless business, and overwhelm.

Living with Avoidant Personality Disorder can feel exhausting, isolating, and painfully misunderstood. Managing Avoidant Personality Disorder is a compassionate, practical guide for people who struggle with social fear, rejection sensitivity, low self-worth, and the urge to withdraw even when they deeply want connection. Inside, you’ll find realistic coping strategies for managing anxiety, handling criticism, understanding emotional triggers, building healthier thought patterns, and taking small, workable steps toward stronger relationships and greater confidence. Whether you’ve been ...

“Psychologist and therapist Ellen Hendriksen has a likable, easygoing narrating style that holds together the impressive amount of useful information in her latest audiobook.”—AudioFile This program is read by the author. Are you your own toughest critic? Learn to be good to yourself with...

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ""Stomach stress gurgles are no match for this spinning rolodex of chill pills."" Neil Pasricha, #1 bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation Life is stressful as f*ck. But it doesn’t have to be. It’s no wonder you can’t calm down: your...

Enter the shocking world of the modern senior Civil Service where the power to award enormous contracts can lead to massive corruption, fuelled by personal greed and commercial fraud. In this novel of our times and ways of life, this cosy world of mutual protection and closing ranks against outsiders is laid bare – a world made possible by a culture of wilful blindness. The senior civil servants are bound together by a code of not just looking the other way but of deliberately avoiding any investigation of other senior civil servants’ activities. Highly intelligent and immensely capable...

Uncover your hidden assets—you can fill each day with excitement and a sense of satisfaction! Even if you love your work, you probably have days when almost nothing goes right. Bestselling author Dale Carnegie shows you how to make every day more exciting and rewarding—how you can get more...

The Self-Compassion Blueprint : How To Improve Self Compassion. A 30-Day Science-Based Plan to Stop Self-Criticism, Build Emotional Resilience, and Develop Lasting Confidence. This book is organized into four parts and a 30-day daily practice section designed to move you from understanding self-compassion to actually living it. Part I lays the groundwork. You'll get to know your inner critic — where it came from, why it sounds so convincing, and what it's actually costing you. You'll also confront some of the myths about self-compassion that might be keeping you skeptical. Part II builds ...

A dazzlingly original and ambitious audiobook on the history of female self-portraiture by one of today's most well-respected art critics. Until the twentieth century, art history was, in the main, written by white men who tended to write about other white men. The idea that women in the West...

In sixteen dazzling, expansive essays, the acclaimed essayist and poet Elisa Gabbert explores a life lived alongside books of all kinds: dog-eared and destroyed, cherished and discarded, classic and clichėd, familiar and profoundly new. She turns her witty, searching mind to the writers she admires, from Plath to Proust, and the themes that bind them―chance, freedom, envy, ambition, nostalgia, and happiness. She takes us to the strange edges of art and culture, from hair metal to surf movies to party fiction.

Rich in clinical examples, this book offers a fresh perspective on the roles of shame and guilt in psychological distress and presents a step-by-step framework for treatment. Martha Sweezy explains how the principles of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy are ideally suited to helping trauma...

“A rare voice, someone who challenges orthodoxies in the way that many journalists and public intellectuals claim to do but don’t. It is bracing to spend time in the company of such a smart, plain-spoken and unpredictable person.”—Wall Street Journal A striking collection of essays from...

What follows is not a translation in the ordinary sense of the word. It’s more like a paraphrase. Rather than worry over the letter of the text, the goal has been to illuminate the large scale patterns that structure it. The King James Version, for instance, renders Paul’s letter with uncanny beauty but is opaque as an argument. Modern translations tend to have the same problem. Their overriding concern is with the letter of the text, not with its logic. As a result, Paul’s forest is always getting sacrificed for the sake of his trees. But Paul’s work is too important, his good news...

💥 Built On Neuroscience. Designed For Real Life. Created With Dr. Deebika Balu, PhD ⚡️ Fast Results Workbook Included • Designed For Daily Use & Immediate Results ⚡️ 💬 Do You Say Things You Regret — Then Criticize Yourself For It? 🥶 Shut Down, Blow Up, Or Freeze When It Matters Most? 🧠 What If You Could Stay Steady, Even When You’re Triggered? When pressure spikes or conflict hits, your brain hijacks your best intentions. You say things you don’t mean. You shut down when you need to speak up. Your thoughts race, your chest tightens — and just like that, the ...

In this masterful work of literary criticism, Stefan Zweig explores the fascinating world of writers who found no subject more compelling than their own lives. "Adepts in Self-Portraiture" reveals how three legendary figures transformed personal experience into immortal literature, each representing a distinct level of autobiographical mastery. First comes Giacomo Casanova, the notorious Venetian adventurer who recorded his conquests and escapades with unflinching honesty but no attempt at deeper analysis. His memoirs capture the raw energy of a life lived without restraint or reflection. ...