Powerful Tips for Living with Social Anxiety

It is normal for people to get anxious in social situations. However, it is called social anxiety when it limits you from achieving your goals, keeps you caged, and doesn’t allow you to live life to the fullest.  

Social anxiety is an extreme form of shyness that makes simple, everyday activities a nightmare. Victims of this condition find it challenging to comfort themselves in social settings. It is characterized by extreme self-consciousness and anxiety.  

As a result, the victim will likely exhibit anxiety symptoms such as raising heart, trembling hands, shaky voice when put in social situations. With this, victims avoid such activity altogether.  

Social anxiety is a menace that affects many people. However, there are tips and lifestyle changes that you can adopt to beat social anxiety, break free from the shackles and live life to the fullest.  

Here are six tips for living with social anxiety: 

Control Your Breathing 

One of the training military men receive that helps them cope amid flying bullets is controlling their breath. When tensed, the body goes into shock, making breathing fast and shallow. Major body organs will not get sufficient oxygen, and the entire body knows everything is not well, which could trigger dizziness or suffocation.  

However, deep breathing changes the entire game. When you breathe deeply, every essential body part gets oxygen. This tricks the body into believing that everything is okay. As a result, you will neither be tensed nor suffocated. This is the tactic that soldiers engage to stay calm and sane in the heat of battle.  It can also help calm your nerves when anxiety strikes. 

Engage Your Senses 

Many times when feeling anxious, our senses do not help. Think about the last time you were anxious; you were probably not in touch with reality. You were deeply absorbed and carried away in everything that could go wrong. For instance, you assume you will make a mess of the presentation, everyone will laugh and, and you will probably pass out due to embarrassment.  

All this, however, is in your head. When you are in touch with reality, with the moment, it can be beneficial in calming your senses. You can simply engage your senses by smelling some essential oil or looking at a picture that relaxes you. The CBD Vape Oil will help in this situation. 

Better still, when subsequent social anxiety tries to set in, play with a pet, chew a piece of gum, or listen to favorite music.  

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Remove Yourself from the Event 

You were probably anxious because you were too fixated on yourself. Social anxiety makes people extremely worked up about themselves, which reinforces the feeling of anxiety.  

However, one good way around this is by shifting attention to what’s happening around you and getting out of your head. The principle of mindfulness indeed comes to play in this situation.  

In other words, be tuned to everything going on around you. Listen to the birds singing, the people talking near you, the beautiful weather, etc. Remember that not everyone is interested in seeing you make a fool of yourself, and they probably can’t tell if you are anxious, so act natural.  

Practice Acts of Kindness 

While the link between social anxiety and acts of kindness might not be clear, it makes sense when you connect the dots. According to a 2015 study, over 100 college students living with social anxiety had small acts of kindness for four weeks. The act helped reduce the tendency to stay away from social situations.  

Many people suffering from social anxiety involve the fear of making a mess of themselves, leading to rejection. However, when you do something nice, such as offering to help a stranger with directions or bringing a cup of coffee to a thirsty colleague, they are more likely to have positive feelings for you.  

Having this approval regularly from different people can go a long way to reduce your fear of social situations and reconfigure how you approach such situations. With time, interacting with others will become pretty easy.  

Challenge Negative Thoughts 

Most of the time, social anxiety is due to excessive fixation on the negative part of an event. Many victims worry that they might say or do something wrong that will leave an everlasting negative impression on people. Such people worry about: 

  • Messing up the presentation 
  • Forgetting everything you need to say in front of the directors 
  • Making an unfunny joke 
  • Coughing or laughing at a wrong time 
  • Spilling something on yourself 

Indeed, these situations could be embarrassing, and they happen to people. They can even cause short-term discomfort, which makes it frightening to think about. However, such is not the end of the world.  

No one is immune to such blunder, and people will neither tag you forever with the error you committed nor look down on you. Interestingly, many people might be willing to help, and a highly emotionally intelligent person will show compassion. 

As a result, when such anxious, negative thoughts crop up, examine the facts, challenge them and replace them. It is called realistic thinking. You do this by asking simple, fundamental questions about what is getting you worked up and providing an honest answer.  

Understand the Spotlight Effect 

People are often anxious because they worry that they will make a fool of themselves, and people will notice, form a negative impression about them, which will define them. However, when you come to terms with the fact that people are not watching for your blunders, it can help relieve anxiety.  

Chances are, people might not even notice your blunder. Even if some people did, chances are they will forget pretty quickly since many people properly have something else to do or focus on rather than fixate on your blunder. 

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Conclusion 

Social anxiety is a menace that can hinder you from living life to the fullest and stop you from achieving your goals. However, you can arm yourself with these powerful tips and break free from social anxiety.