
Social Anxiety
by Loula Love
We all struggle with social anxiety from time to time, we have all experienced social anxiety, so sit back, relax and enjoy this session that will help you ease distresses that come with communicating in social situations.
Transcript
Hello and welcome.
This meditation is designed for people who experience social anxiety.
I am delighted to guide you on this wonderful relaxing experience to learn and grow.
Get into a very comfortable position and make sure you will not be disturbed for the duration of this session.
Take one big deep breath in and relax further into your position.
It is important to note that people who have high self-compassion experience less social anxiety.
Breathing isn't only useful in social situations but can be practiced at any time,
Especially when experiencing social anxiety or shame.
Let's become aware of your breathing for a moment.
You may have taken a breath as soon as your focus went here but try not to alter your breathing pattern.
Slowly watch it move in and out of your body,
Expanding and contracting your belly and lungs at the same time.
Continue focusing on your breath,
Noticing the details of breathing,
Such as feeling the air coming into your nose versus going out of your nose.
The more you focus on your breath,
The more relaxed and calm you become.
Good.
Let's relax even further by becoming aware of your body now and feel a gentle wave of relaxation sweeping over you.
Notice how your body feels when you pay attention and really feel this wave of relaxation you deserve to feel.
This makes you even more relaxed,
Calm and clear.
Allow your arms to fall to either side,
Whatever way is comfortable,
And become aware of how light your arms feel.
When you become aware of a lightness in your arms,
They fill you with gentle relaxation.
This relaxation grows the more you concentrate on it.
Now focus only on your hands,
Feeling everything about your hands.
Notice the texture of what they are touching.
Let a relaxing feeling of warmth begin to grow in your hands.
Feeling the more you focus on this warmth,
The more it grows.
Let this relaxing sensation intensify,
Making your hands extremely relaxed.
Let this relaxation expand and grow,
Slowly traveling up your arms,
Releasing any tension along the way.
This warm feeling is so calming and soothing that you welcome it.
Become aware of your toes and how they feel right now.
Feel the sensations in each individual toe,
One by one.
Notice how that warm sensation can be felt in your toes as soon as you become aware of it.
Let this relaxing feeling grow and expand.
Imagine your feet are soaking in a gentle foot bath filled with natural herbs floating in the water.
You see colorful petals and green leaves in this foot bath.
It is so relaxing on your feet.
Let the sensation of the warm and calm foot bath travel up your legs and to your knees,
Over your thighs.
Feeling any tension along the way.
Now imagine this warm,
Relaxing sensation is beginning to grow at your navel area where you were once connected to your mother.
It is gentle and soft and very relaxing.
Allow this gentle feeling to expand out and grow to cover your entire abdomen with relaxation.
You are now deeply relaxed yet profoundly aware.
Simply allow the words I speak to go deep within your mind to be used for the goodness of self advancement.
Now let's explore self compassion.
It is important to extend compassion to others but equally important to extend it to yourself especially during times of heightened anxiety or stress.
So place your hands over your heart and ask yourself now,
How can I love you better dear heart and allow a deep sense of inner knowing to rise in you.
You can rest your arms by your sides now.
It would be delightful if you practice this simple technique the moment you feel stressed.
Give a pause in a moment of stillness for your body and mind to understand you are allowing it space for clarity to shine through.
Breathe deeply now inhaling goodness and exhale into relaxation.
Take one more deep compassionate breath.
Nice.
Now become aware of the tendency to judge yourself harshly or become highly self critical about your struggle with social anxiety.
Bring these feelings into your full awareness right now.
Good.
Now place your hands over your heart and say to yourself,
I notice I am suffering so I respond with kindness to these self judgements and take a deep breath in.
Then let it go,
Feeling relaxation come over you.
Allow your arms to rest by your sides again.
Let's take some more deep breaths now and with each breath you take allow yourself to grow more and more deeply relaxed.
Opening yourself up for change.
Breathe in deeply and breathe out.
Breathe in fully expanding and let go.
Another deep breath in and exhale,
Feeling relaxation sweep over you.
And one more deep breath in.
Find your body,
Feeling relaxation grow within you.
And let the breath fall away effortlessly.
Good.
Now hear yourself saying these positive affirmations taking a compassionate breath in between each.
The next time I feel anxiety I react with compassion.
Breathe.
Self compassion is not a form of self pity.
Breathe.
I am patient with myself when growing and nurturing self compassion.
Breathe.
The next time I feel fear I react with compassion.
Breathe.
I trust that treating myself with compassion improves my current situation.
Breathe.
The next time I feel embarrassment I react with compassion.
Breathe.
The more love I give to myself the more love I experience in my life.
One last good breath in.
Very good.
You have done very powerful work here today in this meditation and have learned techniques that will last you a lifetime.
Whenever you are ready gently return your awareness to the present moment.
Feeling refreshed,
Rejuvenated,
Filled with self compassion and ready for social interaction.
4.6 (1 089)
Recent Reviews
Miriam
July 7, 2024
A lovely and very effective meditation, love all the sensory inputs and the tips. Definitely saving it as one of my go-to meditations. Thanks a lot!
Amy
May 22, 2024
Really good! Thank you for the reminder about self compassion.
Kerry
December 2, 2023
Thank you. Iโm going to use this to calm myself down before social situations that make me uncomfortable . ๐๐ฝ
Elena
April 3, 2023
Thank you so much๐๐ป๐So many wonderful words said, starting to put myself in the number 1 place โ๏ธ
Paul
January 24, 2022
I loved this guided meditation. I will practice it daily to help me with my social anxiety. Thank you.
Charlotte
January 18, 2021
This meditation helped to calm my social anxiety enough so that I could take that first step out the door.
Fumi
December 3, 2020
I loved the relaxing music and your soothing voice too.
LizW
November 14, 2020
Very moving and helpful. Will be coming back to this one๐๐๐
Penny
November 3, 2020
So calming, thank you.
scott
September 18, 2020
no ending bell good for releasing anxiety imagery for body scan on point easily and naturally returned to meditation good for speaker phone output
Mark
May 26, 2020
Perfect timing ๐๐๐๐
Imelda
April 14, 2020
Soothing and relaxing. It is a great reminder to be compassionate with ones self.
Katie
March 12, 2020
If you were raised in a neurotic, narcissistic family like I was, and your hypervigilance and anxiety feels like it could power the next generation of spacecraft to other galaxies indefinitely, then this amazingly relaxing meditation/affirmations is for YOU โฏ๏ธ๐โฎ๏ธ๐
Talia
January 7, 2020
Put me right to sleep unexpectedly lol!! But soothing nonetheless.
Nyx
October 7, 2019
Nice one. I loved the visual imagery with the feet in the bath with the petals as well as the focus on self-compassion
Lynda
September 27, 2019
Thankyou so much for creating this wonderful tool. Just what I needed to aid in my journey to peace and self compassion. You are an excellent spirit guide Mama!! So grateful for you and your invaluable work! A true gift ๐๐ ๐
Kristine
September 17, 2019
Wonderful and helpful meditation! Thank you!
Lindsay
September 6, 2019
So helpful! For me, a shorter version where we can get to the meat of the meditation sooner would also be helpful. Thanks for this ๐
