A short YouTube transcript of Dr. Aziz offering a brief actionable practice for when you fear someone dislikes you: slow down, shift attention from reactive thoughts to bodily sensations, and ask “What am I really afraid of right now?” to explore underlying fear instead of immediately defending or fixing the outside situation.
Do this the next time someone is upset with you or doesn't like you or you're worried that someone is upset with you or doesn't like you. What often happens is when we have that thought, we freak out, right? Oh my gosh, what did I say? We start to comb through all the things that we said. We start to maybe argue with them or defend or feel guilty and it's off to the races. And what we don't do in that moment. But what I'm suggesting that you do start doing is to slow down and ask yourself this one question. Question. What am I really afraid of right now? And bring yourself from the mind and the buzzy to down to your body and find what am I really afraid of right now? Oh, I'm afraid of them not liking me. Okay, what am I really afraid of? And it's not about getting the right answer with your head. It's about being willing to examine and feel and focus on the underlying fear. Because instead of trying to fix them and out there, it's about going into here and resolving whatever disturbance occurs in you whenever anyone doesn't like you.
