Cure Social Anxiety

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To completely cure social anxiety, we must determine where those feelings are originating from. And in most every case, the cause lies somewhere in our thoughts and beliefs. You've heard the term 'seeing the world through rose colored glasses.. Well, with social anxiety, you're perceiving social interactions through lenses of fear. It is not the interactions themselves that cause stress, it's your perception of how they may affect you. Imagining feared outcomes eventually causes your body to react to the mental images as if they were real, and that is what results in feelings of anxiety and stress. Thoughts are the filters of perception, and play a big part in manufacturing your feelings. The emotional aspect of every interaction you engage in during your day is going to reflect those feelings that have been inspired by your negative thoughts and expectations.

Do you notice how you feel better when you are with particular people (like friends)? The reason is because you think differently when you're with those people. If you're with good friends that admire you and make you think positively about yourself, then you're usually going to feel good when you're with them. But if you're instead in a "stressful social situation" that poses a lot of "negative possibilities" like rejection, you'll probably do a lot more "worry" and "catastrophe" thinking. Do you know why do you feel better when you're reading an inspirational book? Because it's providing you inspirational thoughts. Ever wonder why do you reach out for or cling to some people when you're feeling fearful? Because their presence or supportive attitude inspires the type of thinking within you that makes you feel safe and comfortable. But you can do the same thing for yourself. You can start generating your own inspirational or supportive thoughts. You can begin exerting a sense of control by imagining positive solutions.

In words, images, or both, we're involved almost constantly in self-dialog in our minds. To overcome anxiety we need to begin controlling the nature of that internal communication, rather than passively following past programming that we've absorbed through interactions with low-minded people and bad experiences. Taking conscious control of the type of messages we think to ourselves is the next important step toward overcoming social anxiety. Mental preoccupation with feared social scenarios causes your body to release adrenaline, and creates social anxiety sensations like nervousness. Once your mind stops dwelling on negative possibilities, social anxiety will have no basis on which to grow. The conclusion? Reverse your negative thoughts about interactions, and you will reverse your social anxiety.

In the next exercise we'll work on reversing some of the most common thought patterns that lead to social anxiety. But you may hold some unique personal beliefs that need adjustment as well. Reflect on situations that cause social anxiety for you, try to determine the faulty thoughts behind your anxiety reactions, and then decide what replacement thoughts will best help you move beyond those reactions. You might consider a socially secure and confident person, and imagine what they must believe about themselves in order to interact that way. Your replacement thoughts don't need to be the complete reverse of your current ones. Being realistic will make the replacement beliefs easier to absorb - even acknowledging a positive possibility is an improvement in many cases. In other words, "positive" thinking doesn't have to be extremely positive... realistic works just fine - even better in some cases.

Before moving on, let me remind you to not forget about practicing the first exercise. Using "positive thought" as a method of avoiding existing emotions is difficult because it very easily adds a fear energy to the new thought -- which just undermines the effort. Therefore, keep practicing what you learned in that first exercise as you move into this next section. It actually a good idea to perform a listening session before working on thought adjustment. This way you overcome the tendency toward avoidance of energy first, and avoid using the thought exercises as a method of suppressing emotional energies. With your current anxiety levels under control, you're in the best position to re-program your new beliefs into your mind.

With all that in mind, let's get started... To demonstrate this next process, we're going to work on reversing some common thought patterns that lead to social anxiety. Of course, the intention is not for you to passively accept beliefs that you don't agree with, so if you encounter any idea that you're not comfortable with, simply ignore it and move to the next..

For this next exercise, please locate yourself in a private and comfortable environment, where you can work without interruptions.

NEXT PAGE: Treat Social Anxiety with Thought Adjustment