How to Deal with Insults

Do you have a problem with emotional insecurity? Do insulting remarks bother you? We will discuss ways to positively deal with those who try to insult you.

Display your sense of humor when someone hurls a nasty remark at you. If you laugh when someone tries to insult you, you will feel better while possibly humiliating the other person. You can easily laugh away emotional pain. As they say, "Laughter is the best medicine."

Ignore someone who tries to insult you. If you ignore the bad remarks, you will be happier and make the offender feel powerless.

Temper your emotions. Even if you feel a little slighted by someone's comments, you must control your anger to avoid doing something you will regret and prevent giving your attacker satisfaction. Words cannot actually hurt you unless you let them. Abide by the phrase that says, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

Take the "high road". As tempting as it might be, you must not hurl a bad remark back. If you participate in name-calling, you will demean yourself by stooping to the other person's level and risk incurring a physical fight. You will truly be strong and have a great sense of character and dignity if you can just walk away and say, "I'm not going there."

Realize others' stupidity. Take consolation knowing that someone who wishes to insult you is stupid.

Raise your level of expectations. When someone calls you something like a loser or failure, use these remarks as something to make you "hungry". When someone tries to make you feel worthless or convince you that you are an incompetent, become motivated and work harder to succeed and prove the other person wrong.

Avoid using come-back remarks. If you try to think of something insulting to say back, you will waste your time while letting the other person know he or she insulted you.

Try to understand others who try to insult you. There is a high possibility that someone who wants to insult you is having personal and mental problems while feeling insecure.

If someone hurls an obscenity at you, you could work at becoming his or her friend. When I watched 'Tale Spin' as a kid, I learned something from Baloo, one of the characters. "The best way to defeat an enemy is to make him your friend," he said.

Take others' attempts to insult you with a "grain of salt". Only you can make the choice whether or not you will be insulted.