Hi, I’m 20M and just about to start my second year of university.
I’ve always been that really quiet kid, pretty ugly looking throughout my school years which lead to super bad social anxiety. I only realised i had anxiety a couple years ago, before that I just thought that was me.
As I got to around 18 my confidence grew as I started to look better but this was purely online mainly. I would still keep my head down whilst walking the corridors and keep myself to a select few groups.
I’ve had a couple girlfriends since then which allowed me started valuing my own self worth.
The biggest thing for me was my self image..
I came to realise my negative body image (skinny) went hand in hand with my anxiety.
As i started to go to the gym I had a newfound confidence.
I’m still that socially anxious guy a lot of the time, but I’ve realised that you can’t heal a trauma that’s so deeply rooted (built throughout childhood) overnight.
It’s a continuous active process.
I’ve been watching this YouTube channel called “Social Animal” lately and I can’t recommend it enough.
It’s ran by this guy called Reuben who meets with his subscribers and helps them approach random people and get over their anxiety.
Trust me. Watch these videos. Seeing people much more awkward and anxious than yourself going up to pretty girls or even groups of people and having conversations with no context makes you feel so invigorated to just try it yourself!
So, that’s what i’m gonna do.
University is about to start again and I’m planning to go out there and be more HUMAN. Talk to other humans and connect, and hopefully beautiful opportunities and experiences stem from that!
JOIN ME! Let’s jump into this journey together!!
#SocialAnimalChallenge
I’ll be updating and posting comments under this post as the year goes on.
You got this my friend!
1 comment
Hey man! It’s funny to read this as I lived through some of the exact same things you’re describing when I was going through Uni years ago. Other channels like that were popular.
I just want to say don’t put all your hopes up on this sole idea you got. Our brain is pretty flawed and we sometime assume that there’s this one solution that will help us grow and become better people.
The truth is becoming more social and building self esteem takes a lot of time and a bunch of different experiences. University is brutal because if you don’t have a good social circle it can quickly become isolating and depressing. But you can do a bunch of stuff to help you get out of this situation!
I would say that it’s great to approach random people! But mostly with small interactions where nothing is expected in return and you genuinely want to compliment someone regardless of their physical attributes, or share a quick funny/witty remark. Why? Because there’s a big chance you won’t vibe or like that person and you only have a limited amount of time/energy to give. You also don’t want to indulge this shallow materialist culture that dominates the world right now. It’s pretty destructive trust me. Just vibe with people 🙂
The best adive I would have liked to hear when I was at uni is : Focus on yourself and choose a social hobby that you want to do. Educate yourself on the state of the world and decide what you don’t like about it, find people that agree with you and see what you can do about it with them.
Good luck on your journey!