Rising Above Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is seeing ourselves in a distorted way and believing that distortion to be the truth. But the real truth is that you are already enough as you are. You are all you need to be. In Day 1, we'll explore the concept of The Reveal and remind ourselves that social anxiety is a package deal that comes bundled with strengths that won't fade even as social anxiety lessens.

Today we'll talk about why social anxiety sticks around over years (and even decades), the two lies of social anxiety, the myths and truths of confidence, and we'll create your Challenge List, a concrete list of things you’d be doing if you were living the life you want.

Your attention is a spotlight, and you decide where to aim it. When we feel anxious, we unconsciously turn the spotlight inward, highlighting our worried thoughts, our anxious bodies, and how we think the situation is going (where the Inner Critic is guaranteed to tell you you're bombing). In Day 3, we'll learn how and why to focus outward.

Ever see the bumper sticker: "Don't believe everything you think"? In Day 4, we'll learn how to catch a thought, plus four ways to challenge your Inner Critic's shouts and murmurs.

In Day 5, we'll tackle two topics. First, we'll touch on self-compassion and how to talk more kindly to ourselves. We can't grow in a punitive environment, so we'll learn to support ourselves as we stretch and change. Next, anxiety is driven by uncertainty, so we'll learn to increase certainty by giving ourselves some structure - a fulfilling mission, should we choose to accept it.

Perfectionism is a bit of a misnomer, because it isn’t necessarily about being perfect; instead, it’s about never being good enough. In Day 6, we'll roll back our expectations of social perfection and discover that when we loosen our grip on our rules, we're safer and happier than we ever expected.

Safety behaviors are actions we take to conceal our perceived inadequacies, like wearing sunglasses indoors, talking to the floor, or scrolling through Twitter so we look busy. We use them to hide, to try to blend in, and to feel safer, but they actually send an unintended message. Furthermore, dropping our safety behaviors allows us to look and feel more comfortable and more connected. In Day 7, we'll practice letting go of our safety behavior habits.

Today, in Day 8, we'll investigate three different cognitive biases that perpetuate the myth that we broadcast our anxiety for all to see. Plus, we'll use the phone in our pocket to gather some helpful evidence that how we feel isn't how we look.

In today's lesson, we'll talk about connection and three things that bring us together: repetition, disclosure, and initiative. Plus, why friends are made, not found, and why that's good news.

On this final day of our course, we'll wrap up all our tools with a nice big bow and answer some FAQs about how to tell the difference between avoidance and simply not wanting to do something, how to support a friend with social anxiety, and more! Prepare to welcome your new life.