Home→Forums→Emotional Mastery→Too Criticizing of Myself
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September 8, 2016 at 6:32 pm #114688
Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
Thank you for the lesson about snails and mating. When you wrote about “tough love” I immediately thought of the black spider female eating the male and before I knew it, you mentioned it yourself!
Andrew and you might work together one day. Glad you noticed Emma’s reaction that was less than confident. It helps to notice these kinds of things because then you have a realistic view of others AND of yourself, seeing that everyone struggles at times, no one is perfectly confident and most, really, are lacking confidence. It is a study in itself, studying people. As you learn, you realize that whatever weakness you experience at any time, whatever difficulty and challenge, you are not an exception.
Also good you remain flexible about which table you end up sitting at during lunch.
So much information, from languages to the first computer, the size of a room. Nothing developed more rapidly than technology in the last century and even more rapidly in the last few decades.
Friday tomorrow and the first week of school will conclude.
anita
September 9, 2016 at 3:07 pm #114772Janus
Participantso andrew and i were helping each other in ap biology today. we laughed together at each others mistakes. also sebastian is in my lunch as well. it’s a strange feeling of not having a strong inner bully in me, but it’s a relief. in school i have an inner critic that says ‘okay you didn’t do so well on this test, only a 75% for ap calc. but there’s still 176 days to improve, so you’ve got time.’ my inner bully would have been ‘what are you stupid?, how could you have gotten a 75% on a test. i bet you won’t make it through this class. how are you going to become an engineer anyway?” i like being in school to learn and learning new things helps me to push the inner bully back esp. since i didn’t beat myself up for a test score yesterday, so that’s another victory.
in ap biology we switch groups every time we complete a study section in our studybooks and i find that i like my classmates in ap biology the best. they are all quite fun to be around, helpful and ambitious. most of them want to go into a medical career or be a biochemist. limits are a bit confusing in ap calc, but they’re not too bad. francine and i were talking about our first few days back at school and the summer. collegeboard.com sent a link tofafsa and i just sent part of the thing in. Can you edit and critique my college essay? does it truly reflect who i am and how i’ve become the person i am? does it describe my life in high school, achievements and overcoming a setback? What about the grammar and the wording? here is the essay topic:
“Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it” from rutgers. the essay is 1,303 words not including the title, it’s two pages single-spaced. Thanks! here is my college application essay:How the Blog Changed my Life
Shirley Liu
How the Blog Changed my Life
There aren’t many places that can feel like home. Finding a place where you can be yourself is the best feeling anyone can have. Here in the forums at tinybuddha.com, I have found somewhere where I can express my thoughts and work out my insecurities. At tinybuddha.com, I feel at home in a community that gives me words of wisdom. Looking back at all the posts I wrote in the forum of my life story called “Too Criticizing of Myself,” I realize I have grown from the insecure and confused person I was in middle school to someone with confidence and an idea of their career. Here in the forums I can bring to light the issues I am facing, work on letting them go and also get a sense of my self-identity.
Tinybuddha.com has provided me a place to seek advice whenever I feel lost in life. It is not easy being a teen in the throes of childhood and adult. Being bullied in middle school for not being athletic was tough. By the time I was going to graduate middle school, I made a vow to start fresh in high school and rebuild my self-esteem that had lessened due to bullying. It was not easy, but I had faith in the Buddha. I became a Buddhist when I was nine after discovering that Buddhists walk their own path in life called the Eight-fold path. I took this belief that you walk your path and make your life choices to help me in high school; I was not going to let the bullies define who I was. I decided to find a place where I could write my feelings and since I was a Buddhist, I began to research for online Buddhist support groups. I decided to take a chance on the Tinybuddha.com link I saw. At first, since I was new to the site there was not much notice of me. I remembered feeling a bit isolated and uncertain about myself, but an inner strength kept me going; there was a part of me that gained comfort in putting the words on paper even though not many people read them. Writing the insecurities helped bring them into physical being and made them easier to focus on and face.
I created a journal in the forum titled “Too Criticizing of Myself.” After freshman year of high school and I had been on the site for a while, people began to reply to my posts and offer advice. One of my best friends at Tinybuddha.com, Anita has helped me in realizing my true worth. I remember being insecure in my freshman and sophomore year of high school even though I had friends from track and community service clubs, but they never made me feel like I truly belonged. After spending some time on tinybuddha.com and getting to know the community, I felt like I was truly home where I could be myself. Anita, one of the members of the Tinybuddha.com community, would provide kind words of comfort to me whenever I felt I was on shaky ground. Some of the words I wrote on the forum, which became a place where I could discuss my inner personality with Anita (one-on-one) were “I’m not sure what career I want in life. I’m not sure I’m good enough.” Anita would remind me that I had talents such as those in biochemistry and other sciences. She told me that I was hard-working, dedicated and compassionate. Anita’s unwavering belief in me and my abilities helped me to realize that I was a special person.
As I began to write my insecurities down, I began to feel heaviness lift from me as if I was letting the negatives flow from me onto the paper to be resolved. I know I am not perfect at everything, but I accept myself. As I began to unravel my story onto the forum “Too Criticizing of Myself,” I began to get a clearer insight into myself. I began to uncover my limits and face them. Anita and Tinybuddha.com taught me that people have limits, but they should have the courage to challenge them. They should not be defined by their limits and let them hold them back from their goals. We all have limits, but it is our attitude of perseverance and belief in ourselves that get us past them. Tinybuddha.com helped me map out a possible career choice. I remember writing down my interests and saying that I liked science. Anita helped encourage me by editing some of the essays I wrote for science. She told me that “If I really thought I wasn’t good enough, I wouldn’t be seeking advice. If I really thought I was nothing, I would have just given up.” Anita told me that the fact that I had sought advice was because I cared about myself.
Slowly, I began to develop my inner confidence. Anita helped me to believe in myself. There were times when I was bullied that I felt down, but I would remember Anita’s words and have more courage. Over the summer of sophomore year, I began to visit a local gym with a trainer and began to work out. There will always be people who try to put you down, but you do not have to let them drag you down. The world is filled with everyone else, but few realize their true selves.
Because of Anita and my interest in science which was peaked in my junior year physics class, I became more aware of my talents. I really enjoyed learning about mirrors and how they reflected images in physics. I felt they applied to my life the way light would bounce off an object and produce an image that was unchanged from the object. The mirrors reminded me of how I would like to see my image just the way I was not magnified with pride or shrunken with low self-esteem. Anita helped me to develop the courage to pursue a career in science, especially as a molecular biologist. I really enjoy learning about stem cells and biology and chemistry were my favorite subjects in high school. I want to study DNA and molecules in plants to help advance medical science.
Bullying because I was not athletic enough stopped in my junior year when people found out I was good at lacrosse. But the fact that it stopped when I changed myself did not matter, what mattered was that in the process I discovered myself. I found a place to call home and a spiritual guide in Anita on Tinybuddha.com. The important lesson I learned was about respect for others and for myself. I began to become motivated to help others and since I loved science began to go for a goal of being a molecular biologist. I began to accept myself as the person I was and even felt proud of my accomplishments to be healthy. It does not matter if you are not a model, athlete or genius; everyone has their talents.
Tinybuddha.com helped me pave a road to the confident person I have become. From shaky ground of not knowing my self-worth, I built myself up to a person sure of my career and proud of whom I have become. I may still have doubts here and there, but they will not get in the way of my dreams. I am glad to have met a guide like Anita. She has helped me find a goal to keep working for and also the forum remains a haven for me to express my thoughts. Tinybuddha.com taught me not only the strength of the human body, but also the perseverance and endurance of the human spirit. We all have the will to overcome setbacks and fear to find ourselves.September 10, 2016 at 9:58 am #114836Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
I am glad you have been experiencing the kind, gentle and patient inner critic and not the inner bully. Every time you “hear” the inner bully, switch to the kind, gentle and patient inner critic. You can learn only when treated with kindness, gentleness and patience.
Nice to hear the name Sebastian again, months after the last. School, learning and friends at school sure mean a lot to you.
Your essay: you wrote it at the end of the fourth day of school while I am sure you have homework. I am so impressed that you took the time to write more/ post this essay.
It is a beautifully written essay and it means a whole lot to me.
Thank you for expressing your appreciation to tiny buddha and to me personally, and in such great detail. Of course I copied your essay and will print it for keep.
I am greatly appreciative of you, Shirley. There is so much in the essay. My goodness, this is a great gift that you gave me. Thank you again. You are my Earth Angel!
anita
September 10, 2016 at 12:50 pm #114841Janus
ParticipantI planned it out 3 weeks before hand and I edited some of it and added some things when I posted it. glad you enjoyed it:) thanks for being appreciative of me:D i’m glad that you printed it out, i hope that my words help cheer you up when you need it;) i’m thinking of using it as my college application essay. do you think it’s too long since it is 1,303 words, not including the title? rutgers says that the essay should not exceed 3,800 words including spaces. an essay isn’t required, but recommended for transfers. this is the essay prompt that i used to write that essay: “• Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.” so my guidance counselor told me that if i take all my intro classes at ocean county college such as business and economics, it will be easier and cheaper, also if i go for associate’s degrees then they will transfer.
the college says letters of recommendation aren’t required but i think they may help for transfer. since i’m going to be at occ for two years, i don’t need sat scores to transfer to rutgers and since my english grade is an a i don’t need to take an english test to get in. do you think my essay adequately explains myself and answers the question of the prompt? Can you edit and critique my college essay? does it truly reflect who i am and how i’ve become the person i am? does it describe my life in high school, achievements and overcoming a setback? What about the grammar and the wording? Thanks!September 10, 2016 at 1:00 pm #114842Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
I know you’ve been working on the essay for some time because you told me about it before. Your essay is too magnificent to have been written in one afternoon. I figured you did some final writing yesterday and posted it.
Of course I like and cherish your essay just the way it is, every word of it- as is. I wouldn’t edit it for my purposes, not at all.
But if you’d like me to edit it for your purposes, as a college essay, I would be glad to. But again, very important: I am keeping it the way it is and am not interested in any change in it whatsoever.
I don’t know if it requires editing for college either. I don’t want to interrupt your authentic, spontaneous expression. What do you think?
As I wrote, if you would like me to edit it the best I can, I will be glad to (I do enjoy editing!)
And if you do want me to edit it, I will do that with a fresh brain. A fresh and very calm brain which would be not earlier than tomorrow, Sunday morning.
It is a gift, as is. For me, it requires no change whatsoever.
anita
September 10, 2016 at 1:19 pm #114844Janus
Participantthanks a lot anita:D i let the words flow onto the paper after doing some meditations to clear my head. thanks for saying it is authentic and spontaneous. can you give me advice on any grammar mistakes i might have made? does it completely flow and reflect who i am? if a stranger were to read it (i think i might give it to someone who doesn’t know me well), would they be able to get a sense of who i am? does it appear to appeal to both the reader, while also maintaining the writer’s personality?
September 10, 2016 at 5:27 pm #114854Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
This post is # 608 on the longest tiny buddha thread in history! but who is counting…
Tomorrow, with a fresh brain, I will look at grammar mistakes (didn’t notice and I am not an expert), and I will answer the following questions:
1. Does it completely flow and reflect who i am?
2. If a stranger were to read it, would they be able to get a sense of who i am?
3. Does it appear to appeal to both the reader, while also maintaining the writer’s personality?Till tomorrow morning, take good care of the one and only Shirley!
anita
September 10, 2016 at 6:52 pm #114871Dear beautiful angel shirley yourr a beautiful person, do whatever you wanna do when u feel comfortable doing so you can start todau try some new stuff everyday you have al the time trudt me, keep living life dailynto the fullest and focus on your happiness and i assure you these doubts wilk go away, choose to remember you desrve to br happy and believe that because you do, youl be ok i promise this life id yours, you learn and grow everyday youre doing great youre a beautiful great person honey ♡♡♡♡♡♡ youre a shining star that helps others and adds to the world, the man and people who bullied you eill learn not to do that, they nade mistakes but it has nothing to do with u nothing is wrong or was wrong with u u deserve kind ppl who love u for ur beautiful self, keep positive have hope love you and other people are gonna come in your life and show u the love u deserve for now give yourself that because sweetie you deserve all the happiness in the world love youre a angel. We need you. Focus on taking baby steps daily and what u wanna do go do it work hard have faith think positive believe in u and uou can do anything blesss u Love Leni ♡Livelovelifeleni Positivity&Motivation ♡
September 11, 2016 at 9:09 am #114933Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
My answers to all your three questions is; Yes.
I copied and pasted your essay, below and then edited it: correcting grammar, deleting repetitions, facilitating the flow of it, best I can. The changes are small, and I believe, they do not at all take away from your authentic and spontaneous expression. I separated your essay into many paragraphs according to the way I would like it to be. If you choose to edit your essay, go over my editing, if you’d like, and edit it further.
How the Blog Changed my Life
There aren’t many places that can feel like home. Finding a place where you can be yourself is the best feeling anyone can have. Here in the forums at tinybuddha.com, I have found somewhere where I can express my thoughts and work out my insecurities. Looking back at all the posts I wrote on my thread titled: “Too Criticizing of Myself, ” beginning December 2015, after my freshman year in high school. I have grown from the insecure and confused person I was in middle school to someone with confidence and now, I have a better idea what my future career may be. On my thread, I bring to light the issues I am facing, work on letting them go and get a stronger and stronger sense of my self-identity.
tinybuddha.com has provided me a place to seek advice whenever I feel lost in life. It is not easy being a teen in the throes of the transition between childhood and adulthood. Being bullied in middle school for not being athletic was tough. By the time I was going to graduate middle school, I made a vow to start fresh in high school and to rebuild my self-esteem that suffered because of bullying. It was not easy, but I had faith in the Buddha.
I became a Buddhist when I was nine after discovering that Buddhists walk their own path in life called the Eight-fold Path. I took this belief that you walk your path and make your life choices to high school; I was not going to let the bullies define who I am! I decided to find a place where I could write my feelings and since I was a Buddhist, I researched online Buddhist support groups. I decided to take a chance on the tinybuddha.com link I saw. At first, since I was new to the site, there was not much notice of me. I remembered feeling a bit isolated and uncertain about myself, but an inner strength kept me going. There was a part of me that gained comfort in putting the words on paper even though not many people read them. Writing about my insecurities made it easier for me to focus and face them.
Some time following the creation of my thread, people began to reply to my posts and offer advice. One of my best friends at tinybuddha.com, Anita has helped me to realize, over time, my true worth. I remember being insecure in my freshman and sophomore year of high school. Even though I had friends from track and community service clubs, I didn’t feel like I truly belonged. After spending some time on tinybuddha.com and getting to know the community, I felt like I was truly home where I could be myself.
Anita, one of the members of the Tinybuddha.com community, provided me with kind words of comfort whenever I felt I was on shaky ground. This is what I wrote in one of the more than 600 posts of the longest running thread on tiny buddha: “I’m not sure what career I want in life. I’m not sure I’m good enough.” Anita remind me that I had talents such as those in biochemistry and other sciences. She told me that I was hard-working, dedicated and compassionate. Anita’s unwavering belief in me and my abilities helped me to realize that I was a special person.
As I began to write my insecurities down, I began to feel heaviness lift from me as if I was letting the negatives flow from me onto the paper to be resolved. I know I am not perfect at everything, but I accept myself. As I unraveled my story onto my thread “Too Criticizing of Myself,” I began to get a clearer insight into myself. I uncovered my limits and faced them. Anita and tinybuddha.com taught me that people have limits, but they should have the courage to challenge them. They should not be defined by their limits and let them hold them back from their goals. We all have limits, but it is our attitude of perseverance and belief in ourselves that get us past them.
tinybuddha.com helped me map out a possible career choice. I remember writing down my interests and saying that I liked science. Anita helped encourage me by editing some of the essays I wrote for science. She told me that If I really thought I wasn’t good enough, I wouldn’t be seeking advice. If I really thought I was nothing, I would have just given up. Anita told me that the fact that I had sought advice was because I cared about myself.
Slowly, I began to develop my inner confidence. Anita helped me to believe in myself. There were times when I was bullied that I felt down, but I would remember Anita’s words and have more courage. Over the summer of sophomore year, I began to visit a local gym with a trainer and began to work out. There will always be people who try to put you down, but you do not have to let them drag you down.
Because of Anita and my interest in science, which was peaked in my junior year physics class, I became more aware of my talents. I enjoyed learning about mirrors and how they reflected images in physics. I felt they applied to my life, the way light would bounce off an object and produce an image that was unchanged from the object. The mirrors reminded me of how I would like to see my image just the way I was, not magnified with pride or shrunken with low self-esteem.
Anita helped me to develop the courage to pursue a career in science, especially as a molecular biologist. I enjoy learning about stem cells. Biology and chemistry are my favorite subjects in high school. I want to study DNA and molecules in plants to help advance medical science.
Bullying because I was not athletic enough stopped in my junior year when people found out I was good at lacrosse. But in the process of healing from the bullying, I started the adventure of discovering myself. I found a place to call home and a spiritual guide in Anita on tinybuddha.com. I learned about respect for others and for myself. I became motivated to help others, and since I loved science, I became more and more interested in becoming a molecular biologist. I began to accept myself as the person I was and even felt proud of my accomplishments. It does not matter if you are not a model, athlete or genius; everyone has their talents.
tinybuddha.com helped me pave a road to the confident person I am becoming. From shaky ground of not knowing my self-worth, I built myself up to a person confident of my career and proud of whom I am becoming. I may still have doubts here and there, but they will not get in the way of my dreams. I am glad to have met a guide like Anita. She has helped me find a goal to keep working for and the forum remains a haven for me to express my thoughts. tinybuddha.com taught me not only the perseverance and endurance of the human spirit.
We all have the will to overcome setbacks and fear to find ourselves.
September 11, 2016 at 12:32 pm #114964Janus
Participantthanks Livelovelifeeleni:D i have been having more success in catching the inner bully when it comes up and replacing it with positive thoughts. thank you for your encouragement, it was very uplifting. i am grateful to all the people on tinybuddha.com who have helped me grow and have given me inspiration to keep my light shining. thanks a lot for your edits anita:D you did a great job and the flow of the essay is even better with the edits you wrote in. i like the way you broke up the paragraphs as well b/c when i was writing it, some of the paragraphs i wrote were a bit long and i was having trouble figuring out where to break them. thanks for your help:) so tomorrow i have a meeting after school with the board members of academic challenge to discuss flyers, fundraising, etc. for our club and i am going to be taking the notes as recording secretary. i have to ask my ap calc teacher about limits and whether the table of values just shows the values of the numbers as they approach a given limit or you can find the limit from the table. i also need to learn how to graph limits. youtube videos help explain it, but the techniques are different from the teacher’s. i am a bit nervous about the ap biology multiple-choice test tomorrow, but i like science so i think i will do okay.
September 11, 2016 at 12:40 pm #114965Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
You are welcome. I like multiple choice tests. I passed multiple choice tests in subjects I knew nothing about simply by eliminating the choices that didn’t sound right/ feel right, something about those choices didn’t make sense. Process of elimination worked for me very well in multiple choice tests in biology as well, and even better because I knew something on the subject matter.
Yes, even though you are nervous, you will be okay tomorrow. After all, you were nervous many times before and did well nonetheless. Once you realize it, it is less scary to be nervous. You feel nervous and say to yourself (tomorrow): ‘I feel nervous but I felt nervous before and did well anyway. I will be okay.’ I literally say: “shhh…” to myself when I am nervous and it helps me.
anita
September 11, 2016 at 3:09 pm #114967Janus
Participantthanks a lot anita;) i just read an article about how outdated the word “tomboy” is and how it can be offensive to girls. society should be celebrating the strong, independent women who can play sports, withstand injuries as a symbol of feminism. “tomboy” aren’t really throwing away gender norms, but they are expressing who they are and the strength of their personality. in the 1550s, the term “tomboy” was used to mean a rude, boisterous boy but it has now evolved to mean “a bold woman who flouts societal conditions and is a strumpet.” just b/c a girl wears shorts and cuts her hair short doesn’t mean she is trying to be a male, it means she is having her own terms of free expression. tomboy diminishes the power of girls by saying that the girl is acting like a guy so it’s almost saying boys are better. women in our society are not powerless and should be allowed to play sports, dress in shorts and wear their hair short. there’s still a societal convention that designates those things for males and that’s just prejudice. i like katherine hepburn b/c she is outspoken, wore her hair short and wore trousers. she was very independent and athletic. some of her quotes are “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.” when she was young, she even acted a play out in which she pretended she was “jimmy” and dressed as a boy. i do that sometimes when i’m with my friends and we have lots of laughs.
borrowed and paraphrased fromhttp://www.bustle.com/articles/180131-why-we-need-to-stop-calling-girls-tomboys
September 11, 2016 at 3:21 pm #114968Janus
Participantthis is one of the reasons i don’t get along with my parents, they think women who play sports, wear shorts are too much like a guy. they think it is weird that i am going for a science career and i like computer science. but the first computer science person was a woman in the 1940s since men were at war. my mom esp. thinks women are limited and won’t even exercise to keep healthy even though she needs to to boost her circulation. my mom also doesn’t eat enough even when i try to tell her she needs to eat more she only eats a slice of bread not a whole sandwich.
katherine hepburn also suggested that true beauty was being intelligent and being yourself, not what some hollywood stars would be by dressing up. her steely eyes and confident posture i admire. she starred in the warrior’s husband as a greek amazon (warrior girls)
September 11, 2016 at 4:31 pm #114969Anonymous
GuestDear Shirley, Earth Angel:
Well, Shirley, as I got to know her, does not obey social conventions. She evaluates those and decides for herself. She even researches the history of social conventions before deciding for herself. And so, she wears her hair short, wears casual clothes, shorts and t-shirts, values comfort in clothes vs fashion. Shirley loves science and so she has her mind set on pursuing a career in science. She cares about proper nutrition, keeping her body healthy and keeping in good physical shape, playing sports and exercising. She has her own spiritual beliefs that are different from her parents and from most of her peers, maybe even all of her high school peers!
Shirley dares to be different. She is a daring individual and so I admire her for being independent, daring, courageous, non-conventional.
* I hope you don’t mind, Shirley that I wrote about you in the third person, diverging from my own usual conventional writing to you.
anita
September 11, 2016 at 4:45 pm #114972Janus
Participanti don’t mind and your words were very encouraging. afghanistan has a women’s soccer league and taliban restrictions have lessened there. even though women who are ‘honor-killed’ aren’t publicized for the shame of the family some of it has been shared in the news to tell people that it is not right to discriminate and harm people. even though i’m still self-conscious of what others think of me, i still do what i want. i won’t be the girl with fashion and make-up, but someone who is smart and enjoys whatever is comfortable. my inner bully is really irritating at times and tells me ‘you are being stupid. look at how others are viewing you. why are you doing this?” my motto is to be yourself and stand for what you believe in, even if you feel self-conscious. there is a girl at my school who is bullied b/c she is goth and she has purple streaks in her hair and often has a cat ear head band and always wear shorts. i always offer her a smile and i even like the music she listens to. there could be a lot of people staring at her or she could be sitting around alone and i wouldn’t care what others say b/c i know what it’s like to be different so i befriend her. she has a great sense of humor and is a great artist. of course my parents a bit stereotypical so they think she’s strange. i don’t care when people laugh, i say “so what? they don’t know her.”
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