Worried About What People Think of You?

Are you worried about what people think of you? Are you shy, socially anxious or lack self confidence? You may feel awkward and uncomfortable in anything from group social settings to work interviews – making you feel that doors are closed to you which are open to everyone else. If you have a heightened sense of concern about what other people are thinking about you, this may lead you to change the way you act and behave in order to meet what you think they expect of you.

Try to identify what is making you feel so self-conscious. Are you worried about your hair style, your weight, your clothes, the way you walk? What is it you feel is worthy of critical thoughts by others? Now think about the people you know, or have seen, who have the same hair style, the same weight, who buy clothes in the same store, or who have an unusual gait. Have you had negative thoughts about those people? No? So why expect they would about you? Don’t change anything about yourself to make someone else happy, focus on being happy with who you are. When you learn to accept yourself as you are, then you will be happy in yourself and the opinions of others will really not matter.

Start listening to yourself. If you hear your inner voice begin to say ‘I wish I could…but…’ and then you list reasons why you cannot, make a conscious choice to stop that line of thinking. Replace ‘but’ with a list of reasons why you can. If you wish you’d gone to college or university, then your list might include finding out about distance learning courses that are available in subjects which interest you.