Reduce Your Social Anxiety by Doing Good Deeds
If you tend to avoid social situations because of the anxiety they cause, you may be able to feel more comfortable with others by doing things for them.
A recent study published in the journal Motivation and Emotion and conducted by Dr. Jennifer Trew and Professor Lynn Alden suggests that doing good deeds reduced participants’ fear of rejection. Reducing this fear helped these participants get into social situations and interact with others. Trew explains:
Actions of kindness can help counter negative social expectations by fostering more positive perceptions and expectations of a person’s social environment. This helps reduce their level of social anxiety and, in turn, makes them less likely to want to avoid social situations.
Basically, if you do nice things for the people around you, you are less worried about those people creating negative social interactions; which in turn will help you feel more confident around people in general. It never hurts to be nice to others, but it can help with your social anxiety as well. You can read more about the study at the link below.
Kindness Lowers Avoidance Goals in Socially Anxious People | Motivation and emotions via PsyBlog