Learning quick tips and techniques can be the fastest way to start overcoming your social anxiety and shyness.

There are three areas you should mainly focus your efforts on, which are:

• Your thoughts
• Your emotions
• Your behaviour

Working your social anxiety on these three areas will have a compounding effect on the results you will see.

You should identify the ones you have the most difficulty with now, work on those first and then move on to the next.

Your thoughts and how you handle them can have a huge impact.

If you have time, try to look into cognitive behavioral therapy for a complete set of tools for guiding your thoughts.

If you just want some quick techniques to try out right now, then keep reading.

1. Accept your anxious thoughts

It may sound weird and controversial, but the fastest way to lower your anxious thoughts is to accept them.

Once you fully accept yourself, even with flaws like the anxious thoughts you are having, you will feel less inferior to others.

If you have feelings or thoughts of inadequacy or inferiority often, then you just need to work out a way of accepting yourself while at the same time working towards a better future.

2. Don’t overthink

Overthinking can be a deadly trap, so try to cut it back. Most socially anxious people just think way too much, which makes them stuck in their head.

Try switching your focus to the people around you; this can slow down your anxious thoughts and make you think a lot less, which will again make you feel less anxious.

If you are suffering social anxiety, then it’s quite normal to feel sad, lonely and depressed.

But when it comes to socializing, these are the exact types of emotions that will drive off potential friendships or relationships.

3. Smile

People don’t like to be around sad and depressed people all the time. You would want to focus on being fun and happy most of the time. But how do you do this?

Simple, try smiling.

The simple act of smiling will release chemicals in your brain starting you to feel happier automatically.

Don’t believe me? Just try it for yourself.

See how much different you feel when you are sitting up straight with a huge smile on your face, instead of slouched over and looking bored?

The last tip I’ll show you is the one which may make the most lasting changes to your level of social anxiety.

4. Face your fears

It may sound like impractical advice for a very socially anxious person. If that’s the case, you need to start with smaller fears first and then slowly work your way up.

Not facing your fears is one of the most common mistakes shy and socially anxious people make, so this is the one to take seriously and start working on right now.

An easy task to start would be trying to make and hold eye contact with three people outside today, once get comfortable with that move on to bigger things.

Do you want to learn more ways of coping with social anxiety? Then you should read about Sean Cooper and his Shyness and Social Anxiety System.