One thing that has made me less anxious about talking to people is focusing on this notion that a conversation is a gift of somebody’s time and attention. The person you’re talking with decided in that moment that you are more important than everything else they have going on, and they chose you—and you chose them—to spend some amount of time with. That used to cause me a great deal of stress, because I’d worry that I wasn’t worth the time or the attention, but lately I have been recalling how excited I feel when I want to share my time and attention with someone and am imagining that the
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