Along with being more active and regular exercise, mindfulness meditation is highly recommended for overcoming social anxiety. Its popularity amongst psychotherapists has grown tremendously in recent years, because of its effectiveness in treating depression, anxiety and chronic pain. Mindfulness helps you learn to let troubling thoughts pass through your mind without causing you to feel upset. When meditat ...

[Photo courtesy of Ernst Moeksis] Ever heard the saying 'healthy body, healthy mind'? When it comes to anxiety treatment this saying has never been truer. Studies have shown that regular exercise can brighten your mood, reduce anxious thoughts and decrease the physical symptoms. Along with medication and psychotherapy, regular exercise should be a key part of your strategy for overcoming social anxiety diso ...

[Image courtesy of Vaqawi] If you were a shy child you're not alone. 4 in 5 people are estimated to have been shy as children, and half of those then continue feeling shy occasionally as adults e.g. when going to parties or talking to strangers in the street. Feeling shy is a natural emotion. But problems occur when it becomes so uncomfortable that it makes you want to avoid social situations altogether. Wh ...

[Image courtesy of e-magic] The world can be an unfair place at times, with people seemingly conspiring to make your life difficult. When people do something to annoy you 'losing it' and venting your fury might seem like a good way of sticking up for yourself. But constantly losing your temper at the merest slight is only going to harm your relationships with work colleagues, friends and family, as well as ...

Feeling that you have to say 'yes' to every request for help is a symptom of the 'disease to please'. Whilst doing favours for people is just part of everyday life, sometimes running errands for friends or covering for work colleagues can be an unfair demand on your free time. But if you suffer from social anxiety then saying 'no' can be difficult because of your fear of displeasing people or being rejected ...

In a previous post I discussed how to respond to criticism objectively, and in a realistic manner so it wont upset you. This time I'm going to focus on the flip side of the coin, and discuss why compliments should be accepted graciously as a gift, rather than shrunk away from if you're socially anxious. The problem with social anxiety, and the low self esteem that can accompany it, is that you tend to view ...

(Photo courtesy of Steven Fernandez) The painful memories of feeling victimised, humiliated and isolated as a result of being bullied can hurt for a very long time. Whilst being bullied can have a massive influence on the way you viewed yourself as a child, that doesn't mean it has to be the way you think about yourself, or make you feel socially anxious, for the rest of your life. The impact of being bulli ...