Listen while you workout, cook, or commute.
How to handle criticism is something every creative has to figure out. You birth something into the world. It’s yours. And then someone pokes a hole in it.
That doesn’t always feel good. Sometimes it takes the wind out of your sails entirely.
But feedback is how ideas get bigger than you could imagine by yourself. The question is: how do you integrate it without losing your creative fire?
The Immediate Response
When someone gives you feedback that stings, your first job is to buy time.
Say: “I appreciate you sharing this. I want to sit with it and make sure I’ve properly integrated it. I’ll get back to you.”
This isn’t avoidance. It’s wisdom. You’re giving yourself space to process what just happened in your nervous system before responding from reaction.
The Body Practice
Here’s how to handle criticism at a somatic level: when the feedback hits you, notice where it lands in your body.
Usually it’s the gut. Sometimes the chest. There’s an uncomfortable energy there. Heat. Contraction. Maybe a desire to strike back.
Instead of acting on that, get curious about it. Breathe into where the sensation is. Let it move. Let it soften.
What you’re doing is transmuting the trigger. That discomfort is showing you a solution that hasn’t been interpreted yet. The unknowingness of the solution is what’s causing the discomfort. But the solution is already in your field.
Why Feedback Is Law of Attraction
Every piece of feedback is a law of attraction event. It doesn’t always mean you’re supposed to integrate what they said. But it always means you’re supposed to feel what it brought up.
The gut punch isn’t random. It’s pointing to something in you that’s ready to shift. Old patterns. Unprocessed material. Edges you didn’t know you had.
When you feel through that material, you often emerge with a brilliant insight about how to integrate the feedback. Or a clear knowing that it doesn’t apply. Either way, you’re now responding from wisdom instead of reaction.
The Transmutation Feels Like This
You sit with the discomfort. Breathe into it. Watch where it wants to move.
It might take a few minutes. Sometimes a few hours. But at some point, the contraction releases. It feels like drinking a cup of hot tea. Warmth spreads through your system.
That’s when you know you’ve processed it. Your decision space is now open. You can see what to do next.
This is shadow work in action.
If you’re ready to process what’s been running your life, explore the Shadow Work practices.
The Result
When you learn how to handle criticism this way, your creations get better. Your collaborations get stronger. Your ideas become bigger than you could have imagined alone.
Because you’re not rejecting feedback out of ego. And you’re not accepting it blindly. You’re feeling through what it brings up, and letting wisdom guide your response.
The next time someone pokes a hole in your work, don’t defend. Don’t collapse. Feel what’s there. Then respond from the other side.