Hey! I 27 M, want to learn how to smile back at people.
For the longest time whenever someone smiles at me in public, be it while crossing ways and politely greeting each other or a cashier or service stuff, you name it. Most of the time i never smile back and i don’t really know why. It must be some fear or suffering from the Imposter syndrome of thinking there’s no way this particular person likes me/finds me attractive to a certain point that she or he smiles at me.
Yesterday night i went to a club and there was this girl at the dance floor locking eyes with me and smiling at me for a few minutes and i just acted like i don’t care (when i actually did but i simply didn’t have a single clue on how it handle this situation) so after a few minutes i just went away without smiling back at her once. Now i feel so sorry for her she must have felt so upset and all the other people to whom i never gave a smile back.
How can i change my poor behavior? Resolve an underlying issue?
PS: English isn’t my mothertongue, so please forgive me for misspelling and poor grammar.
Thank you for your time and advice. Appreciate it!
3 comments
For me, smiling at myself and practicing these situations in the mirror every day has helped me build a habit and instill some responses to things like people smiling at me. It’s a work in progress but so far I’ve been doing better. Perhaps you could try it? It may not work for everyone though, so I apologize in advance if you practice is in vain.
You just have to smile man. Seems that this is caused by underlying mental health issues. You should seek help from professionals
Just remember you are a regular guy to other people just like they are regular people to you. Make your goal to be friendly back and be confident while doing so. Embrace it the human interaction, it’s just life, no biggie. Also something that helped me was to love who I am and become more confident in myself so that instead of trying to please others I am going about my own day and they are just apart of it.