Social Anxiety Blogs

Hi, I'm Mark P. I recently started a weblog called "Overcoming Social Anxiety" where I intend to share strategies and tips and tricks like this that I've learned over the years.

This post is about one the best strategies I've found for overcoming social anxiety. I still haven't fully mastered this, but the confidence I've gained from being able to speak in a clear, resonating voice has begun to flow into other areas of my life, which is a great feeling.

One of the common symptoms of social anxiety/social phobia is a difficulty speaking in certain social situations. It may feel as if your throat is constricting, making it physically difficult to get the words to come out. I know, because for years I felt that I spoke in a a tight, constricted voice, and that that was just what I was stuck with.

The solution is to learn a new way of speaking.

Here is the trick: Practice speaking in a way that the sound feels like it's coming from the front of your face, not from deep in your chest. This is called speaking through your "mask", ie. the area on your face around your nose, lips and chin.

When you are speaking properly, you will feel a "buzzing" feeling in the area around your nose and the front of your face. Try saying "MmmHmmm" to yourself a few times, and really try to make the sound project from your face not your neck or chest area. It's hard to explain, but it's easy to feel. You'll know immediately when you're doing it right, because you'll feel the slight vibration from around your nose and face.

Now practice speaking in such a way that your voice is projecting from the front of your face. It will probably sound strange to you at first, but that's ok.

You will find that this way of speaking causes your voice to project, and cut through the ambient noise around you. Even without speaking at a higher volume, your voice will reach farther and will be understood more distinctly

Practice saying "MmmmHmmm" to yourself once or twice softly before speaking out loud, to get yourself into the right speaking voice.

I'm starting a weblog called "Overcoming Social Anxiety" where I intend to sharethe strategies and tips and tricks like this that I've learned over the years.

We'll probably never be extroverts, but there's no reason we have to live with anxiety!

-markp
social-strategies.com