A yogi was working hard to achieve inner peace, but when praised, he was visibly pleased and when criticized he was visibly upset. Once when he was perturbed by someone’s comment he approached the Texas Buddha to ask how he could better hold onto peace of mind.
“We cannot hold onto peace. Instead, we must let go of what disturbs. One who seeks contentment and is disturbed by praise or blame is like the foolish ruler who build a castle with walls incredibly thick and high. And dug a huge moat and filled it with alligators. But then, the foolish ruler left the draw bridge down for any passing marauder to simply walk in and plunder the treasure.
You did not lose your peace of mind, you traded it for the approval of passing strangers.
Contentment is your inner castle. It will give you peace so long as you do not open its gate to any of these four invaders: flattery, criticism, success or failure.