Dear fellow content creators: words are powerful.

They can hurt and they can heal. Writers—especially writers—are privy to this perhaps more than anyone else.

When we create content, sometimes people leave negative remarks. And that is fine. We are mindful, open-minded people, after all. A few slings and arrows can’t hurt, right? But when it comes to being downright nasty? That’s when it goes too far.

I recently received a response to my article about being an extrovert in isolation telling me that I was “thirsty.” To tell me I’m thirsty when you don’t know me seems…strange. I keep to myself, I don’t go after attention. My article was an attempt to help others feel less alone because I was drowning in my own loneliness. I was shining my light as a beacon of hope.

But I know spiritual warfare when I see it, and I don’t play those power games.

Some people don’t like it when we hold the mic and speak our truth. It leaves them vulnerable, laid bare. It leaves them feeling powerless. But a power play, this is not. A quench for thirst, this is not. This is a hurting soul, fumbling through the broken glass of healing, all while trying to help and heal others. You call it thirsty, I call it sharing my story so others feel less alone. So I don’t quite follow the resentful remarks from someone who doesn’t even know me. They just read an article.

I also know that what we send out into the universe ultimately comes back to us, so instead of sending curses, I send them love. I send them healing. I send them everything they deeply need so that they can heal. As you know, hurt people hurt people, and healed people heal people, so the more people we can send loving energy toward, the better. So be healed, oh, hurting ones. Be healed.

To those who want to criticize someone else’s creative work, my advice is to make sure it is constructive. Criticism for criticism’s sake is senseless belittling. And if you want to take it a step further, create your own content with the message you want to spread. More often than not, I find those who want to criticize us are the very same ones who are standing outside of the gladiator’s arena (more on that metaphor below)—typically, they aren’t content creators, at all.

Theodore Roosevelt was quoted in Brené Brown’s book on vulnerability, Daring Greatly, as saying:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

The slings and arrows of words hurt. To those wielding them for negativity and nothing more, please think about that. We are all doing the best we can, and well, that’s enough.

And to my fellow content creators, I say: Don’t let them dim your shine. Keep creating, fighting fearlessly. I am right there with you in the arena, cheering you on.

Sincerely,

A fellow humble content creator.