This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Conn chapter.

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s tripping in front of a large group of people, word vomiting all over your crush, or hearing a phone go off in your lecture only to find out it’s yours, we are all united. The feeling of humiliation kind of sucks. You want nothing more than to melt into your chair, which, with your rising body temperature, almost feels like it could be possible. Embarrassment can feel 100 times more magnified for people that have social anxiety. So, here are 5 ways to help loosen up that tight feeling in your chest so you can deal with your embarrassment.

1. Let yourself feel: Anytime something that’s not so incredibly awesome happens to us, we immediately want to suppress anything that we feel. Try not to do that. It’s unhealthy for your mental state in the long run and it will take much longer to get over what happened.

2. Distract yourself: About twenty minutes after allowing yourself to feel like it’s totally appropriate to create a life underneath a rock with Harry Potter’s invisible cloak as your only source of warmth, you need to distract yourself. Do some homework, hang out with friends, watch a TV show or go to a movie. Get your mind off of the embarrassment and onto bigger and better things.

3. Remind yourself that nobody’s perfect: At the moment, you may feel like you’re the only person in the world who can make an embarrassing mistake or blunder. Just remember this, there are literally billions of people on this earth. Mathematically, this means that at the time of your embarrassing moment there was at LEAST one other person on this earth having their own embarrassing moment. If you still don’t feel comforted by this, I recommend watching a compilation of celebrities falling down. One, it’ll make you feel like you’re on the same playing field as some of the most glamorous celebs and two, they’ll teach you how to handle embarrassment like a BOSS.

4. Shake it off: Keep reminding yourself that people have short attention spans and literally minutes after the incident, everyone will forget about it. Everyone else is going to forget about it so you should too. Just shake it off and don’t let it affect the rest of your day. Keep your head up and smile!

5. Let it go: Essentially the same idea as shaking it off. But this one comes with a Disney song. No big deal, we all go through embarassing moments and it’s okay! You just have to let it all go.

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5 Ways for the Socially Anxious to Cope with Embarrassment

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