Five Things You Can Do to Overcome Shyness
A lot of people struggle with shyness and anxiety when they are in social settings. For some people, it’s something that happens once in a while but for some other people, it is their daily truth.
If you have been struggling with shyness and would like to become more confident, here are five things you can do:
Be Your Vulnerable Self
One major thing that contributes to shyness and social anxiety is the fear of looking stupid or being judged. However, in order to overcome this fear, you must allow yourself to become open and vulnerable.
You can start with people you are close to and gradually try it with others outside that circle. As you make yourself more open, you will interact better and your confidence will increase.
Talk more
Talk more to build your confidence; practice by making more contributions to conversations, giving speeches and asking questions. As you practice being more expressive, letting your voice and ideas be heard, you will become more comfortable with talking and be more confident.
Try something new
Decide to try new things; new projects or activities, do things to get out of your comfort zone. Volunteer for things you have never done whether at work, church, or in other areas of your life.
You can overcome shyness and develop confidence by facing your fear of failure or humiliation; one easy way to do this is to take on new challenges. Confronting the fear of the unknown will make you see that you can overcome your anxieties.
Be present
Learn to present in the moment; paying attention to your thoughts and feelings in a momenthelps you notice and understand yourself better. You also experience your world more clearly.
When you practice presence you gain an awareness of yourself reactions , without shying aware from your reactions(good or bad) in any situation. As you observe yourself without judgement, you will see the exact things that you need to stop doing to be more confident.
Find your confidence
Before you become confident, you have to start by practicing it.
Learn to coach yourself; tell yourself you can do it. Imitate and display confident body language; make eye contact when talking to another person, project your voice clearly, stick around in conversation groups.
As you practice confident behaviour by learning and action, you master it and eventually become confident. It may be really scary at first and you may not do things as smooth as you’d like at the beginning but you will get the hang of it.
The one thing you must not do is avoid the opportunities to develop your confidence