There is always some kind of apprehension when we are about to meet people or situations we have not met before, or that we have maybe met but experienced unease, perhaps even great discomfort.

The latter could be due to past circumstances when we had felt inadequate to deal with the situation, we judged ourselves and as a result now have a poor self-image.

These distressing situations might have been repeated and the negative experience reinforced as the memory of it became ingrained in us.

So! We’d rather not expose ourselves to such ‘malaise’ and have become, in a way, some kind of a recluse.

We have some form of social anxiety.

The internet, these days, provides us with wonderful relationships with people we don’t have to meet and most of them we never will – all our friends! They are much nicer than those ‘out there’ in our neighbourhood, and we can have thousands of them too!

The thing is, we do have, at some stage, to face the fact that although these virtual friendships feel good, we are social animals and need some more real face-to-face contacts.

For every problem there is a solution.

So, what do we fear, in fact?

If we really look into it, we may find that it is facing our discomfort, our unpleasant bodily sensations. Although I must say, if we know we are going to meet some severely controlling person, for instance, we might just choose to avoid a possible encounter!

But in the context of what should normally be non-threatening situations, we might want to go beyond our fears, beyond our social anxiety, to be able to enjoy life with others.

So how to beat social anxiety?

What I am getting at is that we tend to ‘abandon’ ourselves in
these moments of letting social phobia taking us over, by letting the negative thoughts enter and then projecting that others feel the same about us as we do.

The truth is that most of the time they don’t – and even if they do, so what!

We are here to enjoy our life and how do we do that?

By enjoying the life in us, our well-being, the good in us.
Some Free Guided Meditations can help us along the way to return to the stillness within where this well-being resides and that we can take wherever we go to whatever situation we encounter.

About the Author

To get more Tips, News and advice by Francoise Bonhoure, visit:

Easy Exercises for Over 50′s
Joining the membership for the eZine gives you access to Free Videos, Audios, Exercise Program for Seniors, regular updates into your email inbox