☀️ Surviving Summer Social Season
🍊 Sol Bites: 5 Ways to Beat Social Anxiety
🦉 Words of Wisdom
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It’s the peak of the summer right now, and the season’s social events are in full swing. It may be fun, but it’s not always easy. Here are some of our favorite tips for dealing with social anxiety as you navigate weddings, BBQs, beach parties, and other events.
1. Don’t rely on safety nets.
When you feel anxious, you might do small things to protect yourself, like avoiding making eye contact with other partygoers, or sticking close to one friend. These habits feel protective, but they teach your brain that anxiety is dangerous. Face the situation without these safety nets. That’s how your brain learns you’re actually safe.
2. Focus on other people, not yourself.
Social anxiety pulls your attention inward. You might start worrying about how you look or sound. Instead, focus on the other party guests. Ask people questions. Listen to their answers. Get curious about them. This breaks the anxious spiral and makes people enjoy talking to you more.
3. Stop replaying the event afterward.
After a social situation, you might relive it and criticize yourself. Ask yourself: Would you judge a friend as harshly for the same mistake? Probably not. And if that’s the case, it means you’re being too hard on yourself too. Notice the thought, then let it go.
4. Build confidence, not comfort.
Don’t wait to feel calm before you act. Confidence means doing something important even when you’re scared. Like learning an instrument, you build skill through practice, not by waiting for the fear to disappear first.
5. Spend time with people who like you.
You don’t have to force yourself into every hard social situation right away. Spend time with people who already like you. Those good experiences build your confidence, and then you can slowly take on harder situations.
And remember: Social anxiety isn’t a sign that something is wrong with you. It shows you care about people and want to treat them well. Give yourself permission to feel anxious. Fighting it only makes it stronger.
Three shifts: change what you believe, what your body's doing, and where you're looking.
Words of Wisdom
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
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