Your personal experiences of feeling socially anxious, shy and not good enough and how this has affected your lives. Sharing your stories about how you have been stretching your comfort zones and growing confidence to move through anxious feelings to live a life aligned with who you really are.
Looking back, I never used to feel “socially anxious” whilst growing up. I remember feeling shy as a kid when meeting relatives or strangers, but even when I first started working I felt okay. Anxious feelings kind of crept up on me into adulthood and, I think for me personally, feelings of social anxiety occurred…
Writing creatively can be very therapeutic. Research has shown that oral and written storytelling can enrich our spiritual and cultural lives and help us heal from past traumas and abuse. Sometimes people write their own life narrative and their writing is autobiographical in nature. Writing about daily experiences, that is, writing rooted in one’s own…
Wherever there is sadness, there is also so much more… It can be easy to zoom in on what feels painful or uncomfortable for us and to colour our world as if that’s all there is. But what else would we notice if we took a step back, open to seeing the bigger picture? This wisdom…
Since I was young, I have always taken the backseat in social environments, at school and elsewhere. Even now I am never the life of the party, preferring to sit back and let others do the talking, too afraid to draw attention to myself. This is fine for me and as I’ve gotten older I’ve…
I’ve come to the point in my life where I realise that what I did one day does not epitomise who I am; but it epitomised who I was that day. I look back to things I’ve done even in the last week and cannot understand how I did them -it becomes unrecognisable to me…
Finding meaning in words I find a lot of solace and constance in words and the English language. It’s something I’ve always loved, and English was always my favourite subject at school, so much so that I’m studying it at university. I find it so liberating that we have the power to express ourselves in…
Today, I can stand up and say with confidence that I’m ‘a bit of a self-confessed oddball’. But, just over ten years ago, things were not so clear to me. I didn’t know much about anxiety and I definitely had not found a real way to express myself. I didn’t know who I was or…
Recognising it’s time to get support At first I didn’t realise what was happening. But once the tears came, I knew I needed help. I felt like I couldn’t go out – not even to pick up my daughter from school. I was feeling completely worthless and like I was a failure. A friend would take…
I have recently been diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). But, not only have I received this new label from my diagnosis, I’ve automatically picked up another label too… I am now classed as ‘disabled’. Now, I recognise my diagnosis, but does that really mean I’m ‘disabled’ just because I have been diagnosed with ASD?…
I’ve always been introverted, but I haven’t always understood what that means. It wasn’t until my early twenties, that the word introvert was bought to my attention, and that changed everything. I’d often leave social situations feeling drained. I felt simultaneously jealous and grateful that I’m so different my older sister who was constantly out…
What stops you from sharing yourself with the world? For me, it’s the fear of rejection. Built on that are the fears of failure and the fear of being seen for who I am; digging deep beneath it, it’s believing I’m unworthy and undeserving; all topped off with a dollop of feeling not enough. A…
In a sense, this is a ‘Tale of Two Cities’ or, more accurately, two countries; actually three if you count this one. This short tale is about asking for help when you don’t think you need it. It is a tale of contradictions. In 2011 I moved, with my wife and two daughters, from a…