Coping with Social Anxiety

[Cammy]

Oddly enough I used to be so shy I could barely go out in public and I couldn't even sit in a waiting room. SOMEWHERE along the way I've lost all my self-consciousness - like TOTALLY lost it. Now I couldn't care a fig whose looking or not, or what people are saying. I have NO IDEA how this happened, but it just happened, and I've got to say - I'm a MUCH HAPPIER person for it. I look like a frigging freak to boot - but I just don't care. I'm just so into being my inner self (selves) that I've found it too liberating to care about other people's opinions. Let them stare or not ... it just doesn't matter to me anymore. It's almost like I've stopped giving other people permission to control me by me being self-conscious at such a crippling level. I guess I just got tired of it, and BOOM ... it went away. My hubby is super self-conscious. I wish I could teach him how not to be, but it is what it is. My most ardent wish for him (and for anyone who suffers like this), is that they too can find the liberation of not caring what other people think. It's a pity that it's not something that can be taught. It pains me to see him so uncomfortable.