Can you laugh at yourself?

To be able to laugh at yourself is a gift. It's a unique ability to to be able to put the the other person with  whom you are, at ease.It's a lethal combination of modesty and humorous self-confidence which makes you extremely likeable as an individual.It lets you show vulnerability without weakness and encourages others to empathize with you. Then why is it that some of us are so scared of practicing this? What is it that makes us so straitlaced and boringly proper? Maybe it's because we are inwardly very insecure and try too hard to fit in with the crowd that we take every comment as outright criticism or compliment. I think we need to go easy on ourselves and rediscover the ability to have at our expense rather shredding others to pieces.

Why are we critical?

Sometime back I found myself fretting about something which someone else was choosing to do. I myself was surprised at my reaction and couldn't figure out why. After a lot of contemplation and soul searching the reason hit me with an impact of a speeding truck.We are almost never really bothered what people do if they are not within the ambit of our self definition. Close family and friends are people who we use to benchmark our positioning in life and we desire the comfort of sameness & familiarity from this group. Anyone who dares to do
things differently or hold contrasting opinion is immediately open to criticism. It is self-preservation mechanism
to guard and uphold the thinking "I am right". What makes us the custodians of deciding what is right and wrong?
This is a childish and immature way of living life.To really be mature and grownup means accepting that our reference group of self definition will have individuals who will choose to behave and do things differently and that diversity should be a source of rich experiences rather insecurities and criticism. Our self  has more depth and color the more we expose it to broader range of experiences.