Recently, I cannot help but notice how shy and socially awkward I might be at times, which is quite frustrating.
To be fair to myself, I am not awful in social situations in that depending on the context I can be seemingly confident and calm, especially when I am among people I know and the context is familiar.
When it comes to new people and places, everything changes dramatically. My voice changes, my posture changes, everything changes. I can start being awkward in all possible senses.
The discomfort gets to the point where I blush and this physical state of vulnerability and self-doubt of course makes things even worse :)
I understand that all of that relates to self-esteem and phychology in general therefore my question.
It's common to advise hitting on the gym, which I just started doing last week. Funnily, the gym is the place where I last noticed my awkward behavior :)
If you have managed to deal with that and improve in that regard, what is your success story?
Social awkwardness, for me and for a lot of people I know, sort of just vanished with age. - The same kind of weird, unexplainable, vicious attitude that passes for cool among teenagers and some early adults fades for most people. The people who still adhere to that code go off and form their own cliques and you just don't see them anymore. - Real adulthood is simpler socially. With personal stability (job, hobbies, network, etc.) and age you care less and less what people think and put less emphasis on what people think about you. - At the same time, you judge people less and less because, what does your judgment really matter? And when you judge people less you judge yourself less. - A lot of awkwardness is a function of trying hard to fit a social shape and failing. When you let go of most social expectations of yourself and others, in my experience mostly because of age and stability, you lose the awkwardness.
If you really need help with social anxiety I have heard that there are psychologists who are good at treating it, although I have never used one myself.
Take some comfort in knowing that it will probably pass with time.