You know it’s completely natural as a human beings to want to be liked by other people. No one wants to be disliked. No one likes to be ignored, not paid attention to or hated, it’s completely natural and what may cause you anxiety and what has caused me anxiety in the past is, not being yourself.
When we are in social situations around other individuals, we may want to be liked by them. Natural, right? So we may become someone we’re not completely comfortable with, someone different, we may become a character? And what may causes us? “Anxiety”
We’re afraid to break character think of an actor , right? There in this character … What happens when they screw up? Now we’ll just shoot shoot another scene cut redo. Well if you’re breaking a character and you’re in this situation with all these other people, you really can’t that may cause you some anxiety, so what I’m challenging yo to do I’m inviting you to do is before you’re going to this situation and even while you’re in it, keep reminding yourself that I can be me. It was sound stupid to allot of you, it’s helped me in the past remind yourself “ I can be me” I don’t have to be anyone else, I don’t have to impress anyone, I don’t have to be liked by everyone, all I have to do is be me. Sounds simple? Sound dumb? Well, take it or leave it. So that’s one thing you can try now before you go out to a party a work gathering , maybe a family event or get-together what is you know, practiced and taught when it really comes to Psychology and mental health is this thing called Visualization.
We’re going to close our eyes and picture yourself in this room or in this gathering and picture yourself being great. Visualize yourself saying hi to people. Smiling, being your complete self. That’s the one thing you can do by closing your eyes, another thing I’d like you tp try if you suffer from social anxiety is go into a room alone and practice visualize.
Use a beautiful imagination , because you’re all creative people, visualize a few people within the room with you, all together, visualize saying hi. This person’s is over here be yourself , maybe introduce yourself. I know there’s no one there, I know if someone walked into this room , you’d look like a complete nut. “Hello my name is Sam, hi. Nice to meet you, I'm Scott. Like, I know, no one would walk in on you, please, don’t let anyone walk in on you, but give it a try. Practice being you visualize yourself being comfortable in this visualization setting. If nothing’s worked for you so far why not give this a try?
People say you know, I suffer from social anxiety. I’ve tried everything and nothing works. No you haven’t, man, no, you haven’t! There are millions of things you can try, you can spend your whole lifetime doing new things, trying new things, and that’s the fun of it ,
1. So I’d like you to try visualization okay? In a room with eyes closed, eyes open.
2. Say to yourself: I can be me. I don’t have to be anyone else. I can be myself right now!
