Beating Social Anxiety and Shyness
If you are someone who finds ordinary social situations difficult then you may be experiencing social anxiety. The main symptoms of social anxiety and shyness can be physical, such as a racing heartbeat, shaking, sweating and a dry mouth. However, perhaps more significant are the thought processes that are associated with this – for example, being anxious about someone noticing about how anxious you are.
The causes of social anxiety can be due to a genetic predisposition to interpreting social situations as being a threat, triggering a “fight or flight” response. Overcoming shyness and social anxiety is about re-training your mind to thinking about these situations differently and not being afraid to step outside of your usual comfort zone. Taking some simple steps to train yourself to learn how to beat shyness could pay dividends in dealing with situations within your personal and professional life. Perhaps the most difficult thing though is learning how to deal with confrontations with social anxiety. This is something that requires practise – you will need to ask a friend or a family member to help you with this to try out different situations.
With some simple exercises to challenge the way in which you think about social situations, you too can beat social anxiety.
