Understanding Self-Doubt and Social Anxiety
Imagine you are standing on the stage in a large auditorium, in front of a packed crowd seated and looking up at you expectantly as you receive your award. You have prepared some words but you feel your throat clenching shut in anxiety and it becomes hard to breathe. You accept your award with a smile, turn to the microphone… and freeze as you look out across the crowd.
Your whole body is screaming RUN! but you swallow a few times and manage to express your thanks and acknowledgment of this great honor… then make your exit as soon as possible. You sit down backstage and calm your nervous system enough to relax. Your throat loosens and you notice you can now actually feel the honor of what this award represents to you.
You begin to wonder if it looked as bad as it felt up there. Maybe from there your head spirals on all the possible social media commentary over your award acceptance choke-up and you find yourself right back up on that stage in your mind, with your body tensing up and your heart racing all over again.
You feel a bit sick and wonder if you’ll be able to continue to meet the higher bar that this award has now set, as you move forward in your endeavors. You plaster a smile on and go out to face the music, anticipating the worst and practicing in your mind what you’ll say in response.
In this scenario, you are experiencing self-doubt due to social anxiety – one of the most common barriers to success for professional women. These feelings are rooted in fears that create disempowerment, a lack of confidence, and deep resistance that puts up walls that stop us from moving forward.
These barriers can be driven by a fear of being judged by others, a fear of retribution from the jealousy of others, a fear that you won’t be able to maintain your new standard at this higher level, a fear that you are not enough to be a part of this new peer group, a fear of back-biting and betrayal, and many others. These fears can show up as anxiety, self-doubt, procrastination, or other self-sabotaging tendencies – and can be incredibly disempowering, even disruptive in our lives.
In many cases, we are tolerating – silently suffering – and may not even realize we don’t need to. We can be free from it!
Five Keys to Freedom from Social Anxiety and Fear
Five keys unlock our freedom from these fears and resistance to cultivate unshakeable self-confidence in any circumstance.
The five keys are:
(1) to recognize the fears are there.
(2) to acknowledge the thoughts and fears they are coming from.
(3) to release the underlying beliefs behind the fears.
(4) to repattern the body’s response to the fears.
(5) to install more empowering beliefs and habits that become our new natural response.
Luckily, there are several simple energy healing and somatic practices that enable this process quickly and effectively so we can get on with bringing our amazing work into the world!
THREE STEPS TO FREEDOM
The first step to unlocking freedom from fear that causes self-sabotage is self-awareness. Having self-awareness around the first three keys is the most important way to acknowledge in ourselves what we are doing that holds us back from living an empowered life.
Journaling is a great way to bring these fears and beliefs into our conscious awareness to be resolved – use these free journal prompts for this exploration! If you are finding it difficult to do this on your own, a coach or cognitive-behavioral therapist can help guide you in their release.
The second step to unlocking freedom is to repattern your body’s response to these fears you have been harboring within. If you have mindful awareness of the times they come forward, then you can prepare yourself to address them in the moment. For example, if the thought of speaking on a stage in front of hundreds makes your stomach clutch and you become short of breath, this is a fear response you can release through practice.
In the moment, you can do deep breathing exercises that calm and regulate your stress response. To pave the way in advance, you can ease and repattern the stress response by performing several rounds of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also called “tapping, to release social anxiety and related fears.
The third step to unlocking freedom from these self-sabotaging tendencies is to install more empowering beliefs and habits that become our new natural response. This step can also be done using EFT! Do as many rounds as it takes for you to feel like these new beliefs can be possible for you, then take inspired action to show your body you are serious about it!
Practice makes perfect – if you can take uncomfortable baby steps that release the fears and move you forward, you can build up the confidence you need by showing yourself YES! YOU CAN! Be sure to celebrate yourself – these baby steps can move mountains! Cheers to you and your FREEDOM from these barriers to living your most empowered and fulfilling life!
About the Author
Name: Shelli Roberts
Professional Title: Life Alchemist, Energy Healer, Speaker, Author
Bio: Shelli Roberts is a Life Alchemist, Energy Healer, Author, and Speaker. She is a faculty member of the Inspired Living University, has been a guest featured on multiple spiritual and healing podcasts, and holds multiple certifications in coaching and energy healing modalities. Her passion and Calling is to guide awakened souls to experiencing their most joyful expression of life and in their Soul-full business through Soul-self-awareness and healing the inner dimensions so your outer expression shines radiantly!
Website: https://joyfultransformation.life
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