Also a person feeling superior to you is more likely to mentor you instead of criticise you(r actions). Criticism more likely comes from people who -- for whatever reason -- feel inferior to you at that particular point in time.

Maybe because they had a bad day. Maybe because you're the expert. There could be a million reasons but few of them relate to the matter at hand. Keeping in mind criticism frequently comes from a place of relative weakness can help build bridges across the potentially harsh content to the real emotional background.

Edit: Well, obviously step one is to introspect and see what it is about your behaviour it would be reasonable to change. When that fails, step two is to find what emotions lie beneath the criticism.