Is Social Anxiety affecting the quality of your life? Feelings of apprehension and nervousness are natural when you’re at the center of attention. Sufferers of social anxiety disorder however have extreme fears of embarrassment in social situations and avoid them.
Social phobia is an anxiety disorder is normally developed from a young age and affects absolutely millions of people. In nearly all cases, social anxiety disorder is treatable using behavioral therapy. Other options such as medication has limited effectiveness at treating social phobia although it can relieve symptoms.
In addition to treatments, sufferers can apply self help techniques to help them overcome Social Anxiety. Self hypnosis has been used for centuries and is effective at changing behavior and emotions. The subconscious part of the mind can be trained using visualizations and learn new behavior from doing so.
Our thoughts have a lot of control over our emotions. Feelings of fear and anxiety symptoms can manifest from merely thinking about one’s phobia. The subconscious mind learns both positive and negative emotions and behaviors in the same way. Associations are made stronger when a person practices or experiences something repeatedly.
Most professional sprinters imagine their race before it happens. Champion tennis players practice their swing over and over again in their heads. Each time they create stronger connections and perfect their ability. By using the imagination you can change your behavior. The amazing thing is it can be used for practically anything including overcoming social anxiety in specific situations.
Let’s imagine that you have to give a presentation in a few days. On hearing this you start feeling immense dread and you begin to visualize being humiliated in front of everyone. You might experience anxiety symptoms such as hot flashes, sweats, trembling and a pounding heart. When the day comes you’ve worked yourself into an anxious and terrified state and the meeting goes as badly as you imagined.
When a social anxiety sufferer constantly focuses on the worst that can happen it’s easy to see how it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Practicing affirmations and visualization techniques can help you recondition the mind. In time with enough practice anyone can overcome their fears.
You can apply visualization techniques anytime. Sit down in a comfortable place with your eyes closed. Begin to breathe deeply and slowly, relaxing the muscles in your body. Visualize yourself standing in front of you with incredible confidence, ready to handle anything. How would you look, talk and feel? See yourself being respected and talked about in a positive way by other people.
See your life without Anxiety Symptoms and the new you brimming with confidence. Use that little voice at the back of the head to give you positive feedback. Give yourself praise and motivating words. Now, visualize the next presentation going beautifully right to the very end. See yourself in complete control and everybody giving you praise at the end.
Keep building on this image for at least 5 minutes and then open your eyes when you’re done. Did you feel good? If you gave a presentation now would you feel as scared or embarrassed as usual? With regular practice you’ll feel less and less fearful. Part of putting on a great performance is acting. Don’t worry if you feel a little anxious on the day and things don’t go as planned. Just remember to stay calm, breathe and remember it will get easier each time.
