A short video episode in which Dr. Aziz explains a simple cognitive reframing technique to reduce social anxiety by shifting perspective from 'outside-in' (imagining others' judgments) to 'inside-out' (centering on one's own perceptions, desires, and sensations). He briefly describes how to practice the switch and points viewers to his book and programs for deeper work.
Do you sometimes struggle with social anxiety and feeling self conscious, worried about what other people are thinking of you, imagining that they're judging you, and then feeling uncomfortable, feeling inhibited? If so, watch this episode. I'm going to share a simple hack with you to help shift all that so you can be a lot more free, a lot more relaxed, a lot more authentic, and just boldly be yourself in the world. Welcome to another episode of the Art of Extraordinary Confidence. I'm your host, Dr. Aziz. This is a show for you if you want to maximize your confidence in every area of life that matters, including your social life, dating and relationships, career, everything. And in this episode, we're going to be talking about how a simple hack to shift social anxiety so you're not stuck up in your head and worried about what other people think of you and judging yourself and imagining they're judging you and just really not enjoying yourself in a social setting. Conference, a dating environment, work, wherever it shows up for you. This is a simple trick I want to share with you that I've used to Great Benefit and I've shared it with a lot of clients and they've benefited from as well. So this is what I would call inside shift. Going, changing your frame to inside out. So you're going to be shifting from outside in to inside out. That's the hack. Now let me explain what I mean. So typically when we're feeling social anxiety, we're. We are existing outside of ourselves. I know that's going to sound weird. No, you're not doing like astral travel or whatever. But what's happening is you're having an outside in perspective. So what you're doing is you're mentally projecting yourself into other humans and, and coming up with what's going on inside of them, making it up, imagining it, and then reflecting it back at yourself and seeing what they see or what you think they see. Right? So let me explain. You might instantly know what I'm talking about because you might do it all the time. I know I did for many years. But what I mean is there's that, you know, you want to go, you share or you want to go approach some people or just be more social and you imagine that someone observing, thinking, who does this guy think he is? Or oh, this guy's trying too hard, or oh, this guy's shoes look funny or whatever, right? Or oh, he didn't handle that very well, or he was, he stumbled over his words or he sounded stupid or whatever. Now what you're doing is you're Going outside of yourself and you're going into someone else and imagining how they see you. Does that make sense? That's outside in and that will fuck you up, like always and forever. Not just in terms of social anxiety, but all kinds of other fear and neuroses and challenges and discomfort. So we need to switch that and we need to flip that to inside out. So what do I mean by that? That means we stay in our center and we're observing the world outside of us. I am observing you over there and you over there and you over there and I'm talking to you and here I am here and I'm noticing what's happening inside of me. What do I think about the situation? What do I want to talk about with you? What do I want to ask you? What do I want to share? What do I want to bring up? What do I think about that person? What do I think about this topic? What do I think about the lighting? What do I. What smells do I notice? What sounds are in the air? What do I like about this? What do I not like about this inside? And here's the thing, this might seem self absorbed or something like that, but it's actually just a healthy level of being centered because otherwise we're totally outside of ourselves and we're just imagining all these different reactions and then reacting to it and feeling threatened and feeling scared. So the simple hack, the simple trick is to just literally imagine the next time you're feeling social anxiety. Literally imagine like this, outside looking in and then just see yourself flipping it. Imagine it flipping to inside out. Even just saying, okay, inside out. And then bring a lot more attention inside of you to what you want, what you think, what your perception is. And then look out and interact with others kind of from an internal frame and really letting go of what other people are doing, whether they like this or they don't like that, or they think that was smart or they think that was dumb. Look, that's none of my business. I don't know. I'm not responsible for their experience or what they think or I can't control that. I can only focus on me, what I want, what I'm going to say, how I want to direct myself and inside out. So I hope this little trick helps you use this, apply this in your life. Of course, if you want a much deeper dive to massively shift social anxiety, start with my book, the Solution to Social Anxiety. And of course go deeper with my programs, which you can find out about@socialconfidencecenter.com. We got some in depth training programs that can help you really eradicate this. There is no reason to be living with social anxiety. You can absolutely shift this. So share your comments below. Subscribe like share and I look forward to seeing you in future videos. Until we speak again, we have the courage to be who you are and to know on a deep level that you're awesome. I'll talk to you soon.
