Social anxiety is a serious problem that appears to be growing in prevalence over time. Anxiety is a part of the natural response we follow to make a decision. We employ it to mull over and consider perspectives and ideas to formulate a response, but it becomes an issue when we focus too much, lending it undue power.
Anxiety counselling provided by supportingwellness.com and other psychologists is one way to frame social anxiety in the proper light and help individuals overcome its debilitating effects. Here are some other ways to mitigate the feeling of anxiety throughout your life.
How to Cope with Social Anxiety Over Time
Celebrate Your Accomplishments
You may find it somewhat freeing to consider the billions of humans living their endless multitude of lives. Some of them will accomplish very little compared to others, but all of them will accomplish very little compared to whoever the most accomplished person is. Therefore, the most important word in this statement is ‘your’.
Your accomplishments could be as mundane as brushing your teeth in the morning or as impressive as running an ultramarathon or building a successful business. What matters is that they are yours, and you feel you have accomplished something. So celebrate it! Not for someone else or a societal expectation, but just because you are proud of what you did and feel good about doing it.
Be Honest About Your Needs
The concepts of introversion and extraversion are largely oversimplified and certainly no way to define yourself. The reality is that people change all the time, and sometimes it is nice to be surrounded by loved ones, and other times it is nice to be alone. You don’t always have to be a social butterfly or a stoic recluse; instead, just be honest with yourself and set comfortable boundaries about when and where you will be social.
Think About Why You Like Certain People
One part of anxiety counselling includes identifying the places, behaviours and times that cause you anxiety. These are called emotional triggers, and you may be surprised to learn that they don’t only exist for negative emotions. Indeed, when you see a loving parent, a cherished sibling, a long-lost friend or anyone else whom you care about very deeply, your body undergoes a positive emotional response.
Now, one part of this strategy gives you the tool of gratitude, which helps you see the very best in life. But, a more actionable part gives you insight into what you like in people and what you expect from your favourite interactions. Use this to compare your relationships with other people, and pretty soon, you’re going to see that there is, in fact, a reason only certain things make you anxious.
How to Cope with Social Anxiety in the Moment
Practice Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises take many forms, including visualizing, counting, positioning and centring yourself. Less important than the specific exercises is the meaning and feeling you take from them. That is, you should learn how to feel the inner calm that comes with steady, rhythmic breathing. Take it into yourself and let it out, wholly and completely.
Once you have found that feeling, you can summon it on command. It won’t always be perfect, and you probably won’t get there on the first breath. But, the more you practice, the better you will be at recognizing the feeling and applying it in tense situations. Try and avoid making it obvious that you are trying to calm yourself, though, as it may give the wrong impression to some people. 🙂
Don’t Take It Personally
Much like the comfort you may experience in knowing that your accomplishments, when measured against the most accomplished person, are relatively insignificant, comes the idea that you often don’t have as meaningful an impact as you may believe or hope you do. This isn’t to say that you are unimportant, but just to remind you that acting a little awkward now and again is something so common that to avoid it is impossible for every person. No one is going to hold your mistakes against you forever; and, if they do, heck ‘em.