Dr. Aziz (speaker) offers straightforward, practical advice for introducing yourself when you have social anxiety: give yourself permission to approach, use body language and voice to ‘announce’ your approach, keep your opener simple and normal (e.g., “Hey, I’m Aziz — what’s your name?” or “What brings you here?”), avoid startling people, and frame the act as an invitation to start a conversation rather than a performance.
Here's the biggest secret to introducing yourself to people. And I'm smiling right now because I spent so many years of my life when I had social anxiety. Be like, what's the exact right way to do it? And that obsessive fear is coming from some idea that you're not allowed to do it and that people are automatically going to reject you, which is a hallmark of social anxiety. You don't have to believe any of that. The truth is you can introduce yourself. You're allowed, you have permission to go up to people and introduce yourself. And it doesn't have to be complex at all. The key is to let it be known that that's what you're doing. You don't have to literally say this, but you're basically announcing with your body language and your voice and what you're saying. Hel, here to introduce myself to you. How do you do it? You walk right up to them. You don't want to jump out of the bushes and startle them, right? So you make it be seen that you're moving towards them. And then, hey there, I'm Aziz. What's your name? Or hey, what brings you here? Something about the environment, but it's not fancy. It's actually normal. And you don't have to be creative and weird here. Just be normal. Because then you're basically saying, hey, we're starting a conversation. Do you want to do that with me? And then you could take it from there.
