For people with social anxiety, the idea of going out and having conversations with someone new is often a daunting task. There may be times when it seems like nothing will ever change, but rest assured that you can find ways to increase your self-confidence despite your social anxiety. This article will break down some of the most effective things you can do to improve how confident you feel about yourself. So, if you’re feeling despondent about being so shy in front of people, read on for a list of ideas that’ll help immediately!
Now, here’s the good news: social anxiety ISN’T a death sentence! Even if you have social anxiety, there are still ways that you can take care of yourself and maintain a healthy sense of self-confidence in front of new people. These 9 tips will help you improve your mindset and get it back on track so that your self-confidence gets stronger.
1. Come Up With Goals
A simple way to start improving your self-confidence is by coming up with goals for yourself. Now, these goals can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be. However, when you have goals for yourself, you can put your mind on a better path.
For example, if you want to get over your social anxiety and want to feel more comfortable with new people, then one of the goals that you could come up with is to simply make small talk for an hour with a stranger. If these are something that seems too difficult or scary for you, don’t let them scare you off!
Instead of focusing on the fact that it’s hard or scary to do something related to social anxiety (which is what makes it hard and scary), focus instead on the fact that it’s something within your reach! The best thing about goals is that they’re not really a big deal. They’re attainable, and all it requires for you to achieve your goal is for you to work hard towards it.
This kind of attitude will give you the motivation to do things that you know are good for you, which will in turn help increase your self-confidence.
2. Stop Dwelling in the Past
As someone who has social anxiety, one common thing that people have trouble with is dwelling on the past. This is often because they have spent a lot of time focusing on what they feel was a negative experience or something that has caused them stress in the past.
This can really affect how you feel about yourself. You see, if you constantly dwell on how stressful something is or what happened that made you feel bad, this can really affect your self-esteem and create a cycle of negativity in your muscle memory.
Instead of dwelling on the past, try to focus on the present. This way, you’ll be able to build healthy habits for dealing with your social anxiety that will be clever enough to help decrease it over time (without having to keep dwelling on things that make you anxious!).
3. Be Patient with Yourself
One thing that’s common with people who have a hard time making new friends is they often become impatient with themselves. This is often because they feel like they are taking too long to make friends or that they may never get over their social anxiety.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with being patient (in fact, it’s good!). However, it can be a good idea to try and slow down in order to give yourself the time you need.
Instead of getting frustrated that you’re taking too long to improve your social skills, try to just learn from your experiences and move on. Remember that patience is a virtue!
4. Become More Social
The natural solution to feeling better about yourself when you’re afraid of socializing is to simply go out and try to connect with other people. It’s important that you don’t rush this process, but just remember that it takes time.
Then, once you have made some friends or a good number of contacts, it will be much easier for you to self-promote yourself and feel more confident in your skills.
If you are finding it difficult to go out and make friends that quickly, then there are other things that you can try that may be a bit more subtle about introducing yourself to new people.
For example, you could try contrasting your own self-image with someone else’s. (Just be sure not to pick someone who looks worse than you!) Then, you can introduce yourself and share some of your hobbies or interests with them.
5. Avoid Doing it Alone
One thing that many people with social anxiety often do is keep themselves isolated from the world around them. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it can actually hinder your progress when it comes to dealing with social anxiety!
Instead of keeping yourself isolated from everyone else in the world, try to get out more often and make friends or spend time talking with people (or even strangers!). With more people and positive experiences in your life, you’ll find that you’re able to take on more challenges, which will start to build up a good amount of self-confidence for you.
6. Focus on Your Strengths and What You Can Do
The best thing about feeling confident about yourself is that it allows you to focus on what you can do, rather than focusing on all the things that you can’t.
One way this works is by linking your confidence with your positive personality traits and skills. For example, if I’m meeting someone for the first time, I might ask them out just because they are intelligent or have a sense of humor. All of these things are positive things about them, and they help build a good foundation for forming a healthy relationship with them.
In addition to that, focus on the good things about your skills and talents. If you’re not confident in these areas, then you may be able to improve them by focusing on what you can do well. You can do this by making a list of all your strengths (and keeping it updated) as well as practicing using them in real life situations.
7. Repeat These Steps
As I mentioned before, social anxiety is something that’s going to take some time and practice in order to overcome. If you’re finding that you still have trouble with it, then it might be a good idea to slow down and go through these steps again.
Just remember that it’s okay if you don’t get over your social anxiety right away. Everyone goes through their struggles with social anxiety at different speeds, so just keep this in mind as you practice!
8. Make Friends
This may sound like an obvious solution, but making friends can help ease your stress and worry about the future. For example, I used to be afraid of meeting new people because I didn’t want them to think badly of me (and I was worried that they would reject me).
The funny thing is that once I made a friend, I found that this person was actually really nice and just wanted to be friends with me for who I was. Although at first I didn’t want to believe it, it turns out that most people are good and just want to be their friend for the same reasons that anyone else might.
This realization made me feel much better about myself and gave me a lot more confidence in my social skills. This realization also helped me become more confident in talking to new people (without worrying about what they thought of me), because I knew that they were just as bad at judging others as everyone else!
9. Relax
So remember, when you’re trying to overcome your social anxiety, it’s going to be a process. There’s no need to worry that life will be more difficult because you’re afraid of someone!
Instead, let yourself know that there are going to be times when you feel nervous or uncertain of what people think of you. This is a completely normal feeling, and it helps you get over the fear if you just accept that it will happen. You can then tell yourself that even if this does happen, it doesn’t mean the other person hates you (and then try to do something about this feeling).
Finally, relax as much as you can and don’t let your fear of social anxiety keep you from making friends. Try to accept that social anxiety is a problem for many people, but that it doesn’t need to be such a big deal. Remember that if you practice enough, you will overcome your fears and be able to make friends in the future!
The more often you work on this problem the quicker it will go away. It might not happen right away, but practicing once or twice a week (even five times in one day) will definitely help you get over your fears more quickly. So just remember that keeping yourself isolated is only going to make things harder on yourself. So, get out there and make some friends!
Overcoming social anxiety is a process that takes time and practice. It can be very difficult to deal with this problem when you have social anxiety, but remember that it’s not something that will keep you from making friends (or getting involved in things). Sure, it may take a little more time for you to make friends than everyone else, but the most important thing is to keep trying! That way you’ll overcome your social anxiety much quicker than if you isolate yourself while you’re practicing. So just remember these things as you try to overcome your social anxiety.
Originally published at https://feedingtrends.com on June 25, 2022.
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