The many faces of Social Anxiety

Photo by Vladimir Fedotov on Unsplash

or you may have it and don't realize it.

Crowded streets, networking events, public speaking, contributing during team meetings, questioning execs, asking for emotional help, speaking and holding boundaries, meeting new neighbors, and crowded elevators. Do any of these make you nervous? Do you feel that being comfortable in any of these is impossible? Do you notice your friends/family/co-workers struggling with any of these?

These are all different manifestations of social anxiety. And at the core, each of these is caused by a lack of knowledge and practice.

I struggled in most of these contexts for decades. And when I started learning and practicing skills, each of these became places of ease. The struggles ended incrementally and like math, each new skill was a foundation for the next.

Social anxiety is one of the entry points to deeper levels of anxiety and depression - we are talking about mental health here. Ignoring them doesn't make it better - like a cardiac condition, it just gets worse. Career struggles are usually based in one of these contexts.

These anxieties were friction in my career. And career possibilities took a big leap when I started working on these anxieties. I was impacting my teams, improving moral and throughput, helping other teams, and getting promoted.

On a personal note, my kids are also benefiting from my learning skills and moving past these anxieties. Teaching them the skills has eliminated both their social anxiety, academic anxiety. Social and academic anxiety are epidemic today, being able to help my kids is amazing.

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