Do new situations with groups of people terrify you? Do you avoid situations where you might be expected to talk to more than a couple of people? Does the thought of going to a wedding, a party, or a work social event fill you with dread? Are you afraid that people will think you’re weird/boring/stupid/dull?
Anxiety in social situations seems to be becoming much more common – and it can be hugely debilitating. So whether you are heading off to university for the first time and are worried that you won’t make any friends, or you are suddenly finding yourself feeling anxious when talking to work colleagues, it can be useful to find out how EFT and hypnosis can help you to better cope and manage these situations calmly and with confidence.
When I am first talking to someone who has come for help with symptoms of social anxiety, it is useful to find out how it affects them. What types of situations bother them the most? Do they avoid these situations at all costs? What are they thinking beforehand and in those situations? What judgements are they expecting from other people? How do they feel in their body?
The truth is that avoiding the anxious situations only means that the anxiety grows bigger and takes a stronger hold over you. What you need to do is to begin to challenge your fears and hypnosis and EFT can really play an important part in giving you the coping skills and the confidence to do this. It is also very important to realise that social anxiety needn’t define you. If you struggle with it, it doesn’t mean that’s all you are. You are so much more than that! One of the first important steps in tackling this issue is to accept yourself as you are while making the journey to tackle the anxiety.
In hypnosis, we can practise the situations that cause those feelings of dread, we can learn skills that will help us to focus our attention outwards, rather than back in on ourselves and our perceived faults and failures. Often social situations make people feel anxious because they predict that they will be judged negatively by other people. I teach people tools to change the way they think to be more helpful and far less self-critical.
When you see me you will also learn how to relax deeply to combat stress and anxiety. Using your imagination to focus on this relaxed feeling can help you to tackle all kinds of stressful situations.
Hypnosis can also help to boost confidence and self-esteem, to help you to feel ready to take on the challenge of socialising and perhaps even help you to tackle something you always wanted to try but never had the nerve.
EFT, or tapping, is another technique that I teach which is very useful at helping people to challenge those automatic negative thoughts that can be so difficult to dislodge. For example, someone who is socially anxious may believe that they are always being negatively judged by others. They may be able to intellectually understand that this is unlikely but tapping helps them to believe it emotionally as well. Once we understand something with both our head and our heart, it becomes much more powerful.
One of the key factors in changing social anxiety is to tackle how someone feels about themselves. Do they feel angry, frustrated, weak, like a loser because they have social anxiety? EFT/tapping can help to resolve these feelings.
EFT and hypnosis make an incredible team. Together these types of therapy can address and change your patterns of negative thinking about yourself, about how people may be judging you, teach you techniques for coping with anxious feelings and feelings of dread, and give you the confidence to get out and live the life you want to have!
