By Avani Peterson
Everyone experiences shyness at some point of time in their life. It may happen on rare occasions or sometimes all the time when you are in a social gathering. Being shy is not a disease and its not a major short coming. One just has to learn to deal with it and face it boldly.
Being shy doesn’t depend on whether you are an introvert or extrovert. Even extroverts sometimes feel shy when put in a group of people they don’t know or aren’t comfortable with. If being shy is part of your core nature, there are ways to overcome it and if it’s a one off experience, don’t consider it a huge deal when you get shy. Getting shy is natural.
1. If you are too conscious of yourself, the way you walk, talk and look, then you are bound to be shy socially. What you can do to overcome this is look at yourself in the mirror every morning and tell yourself that you are perfect the way you are. It should not matter to you what people think of you and how you are viewed. You need to be comfortable in your own skin.
2. If you have negative feelings about yourself, do away with them. Try by surrounding yourself with hobbies and things you like doing and know you are good at. This will help build your overall self esteem and you will feel a lot more confident about yourself during social outings.
3. Try and understand why you feel shy. Sometimes people feel shy because they think they can’t talk well when in a crowd. So they just prefer to hide in a shell. Sometimes people get shy because they feel that they are not good enough. Find out what exactly triggers your shyness so it’s easier to work on fixing the root problem.
4. Figure out what your key strengths are. Just like every person has weaknesses, every person on the planet has some strengths and talents too. Find out what yours is and focus on building your strength and talent. This will help you rely on your core skills to stand out in a crowd thus eventually overcoming the problem of being shy.
5. Learn to appreciate yourself. Even if you have faced incidents in the past wherein people have misunderstood you and put you down, don’t hold on to it. Learn to appreciate yourself and what you stand for. If you can respect yourself then you will face lesser instances where you are shy.
6. Focus on your surroundings during social occasions rather than focusing on yourself and your own discomfort. Observe how people behave and socialize…let your attention drift away from you so you don’t feel as conscious and shy.
7. Practice some social skills when you are home alone. Most famous people have sometime or the other been shy or faced stage fright. But they have overcome their fear through constant practice, trials and errors. Start socializing on a small scale more and more so that you can eventually master the art of being well groomed in front of a crowd.
8. Stop thinking of yourself as shy. Even if you are shy, if you constantly hide behind the fact that you are, you will never get over it. Start telling yourself that you are a socially confident person. Things will fall into place on their own.
9. Don’t try to be perfect. Everyone has their faults. Not one person out there is perfect. Try being you and being comfortable with yourself. That’s all it usually takes to overcome feelings of shyness.
10. Take criticism positively. Just because someone criticizes you or something about you like the way you speak or walk, doesn’t make them better than you. Even if people say something about you, learn to just listen and then let go. Improve on your faults on the side, but don’t let criticism take you down. Take it on a positive note and work towards being better.
11. When put in an uncomfortable situation, don’t get stumped. Think of how to get out of the situation in a calm and professional manner. Every one of us has sometime or the other faced situations where in we have been at a loss as to what to do. So, its normal to be in uncomfortable situations, don’t let it scare you for life.
12. Find a role model who you deem perfect and try to observe that persons social behavior. This will help you to develop your own social graces and thus to stop being as shy.
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