The Solution To Social Anxiety Quotes

“People that live lives without rejection are engaged in a habit of great avoidance. • They avoid standing up for themselves. • They avoid asking for what they deserve at work and in relationships. • They avoid close friendships. • They avoid confrontation. • And sadly, they avoid love. A life without rejection is a lonely life indeed.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The idea that you are not good enough and that people will not like you is something that has been ingrained into your mind over many years. You have hundreds of experiences that you can call up as evidence of the fact that people will not like you -- and that things will not turn out well. These ideas are incredibly convincing. They compel us to hesitate, to shy away, and to avoid the situations -- and people -- that we find frightening. This sets up a reinforcing cycle, where we avoid reaching out, don't get good responses from others as a result, and then gain further evidence that we are not worthy.

In order to truly overcome your social anxiety at a deep, gut level, you must repeatedly take bold action. It is only through trying something new, and with a different perspective, that you learn to see the world and the people around you in a different light.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The main purpose of your inner critic is to protect you from rejection.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“As you begin to understand why your critic is attacking you, you will automatically start to see more effective ways to respond to it. Let’s take a moment to explore just how the inner critic operates. Most importantly, we will explore why we attack ourselves, as well as the purpose of this inner voice.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The more we avoid, the smaller our life becomes, and the more limited our future looks. The solution offered in this book is one of knowing and respecting yourself, accepting and loving yourself as you are, and taking bold action in the world around you. Through these actions you learn that your fears are merely shadows that pose no significant threats. You learn that most of the time people do not reject you, and that even when they do you are able to handle the discomfort that follows.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“When you are able to accept yourself for who you are in this moment, a deep sense of peace and relief can begin to emerge.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“I learned about the process of exposure, which involved moving towards what scared me rather than avoiding it. Once I learned about this I said: Well, I’m just going to expose myself to what I’m scared of until I’m not scared any more. This can be a brilliant philosophy, but I did it with an incredible amount of perfectionism, self-criticism and self-judgment. Also, doubts lingered about who I was and what I really wanted. I had dozens of ideas about how I should be, and I was continually striving to live up to my unrealistic expectations.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The real goal is to look at the areas of your life where you feel limited and stuck by feelings of shyness. When you feel like you cannot do the things in your life that really matter to you, such as finding a job that satisfies you, or creating a loving relationship with a beautiful partner, then it is time to do something about your shyness. When shyness prevents you from living the life that you truly want, then it can be described as social anxiety or social phobia. This simply means that in certain areas your shyness is negatively impacting your life and causing you distress.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Something powerful happens inside of us when we make the shift from avoidance to approach when it comes to fear. Your fear hierarchy is precisely designed to help you make this shift. Instead of viewing each item as a threat that demands your focus, time, and energy to avoid, what if you saw each item as an opportunity to face your fears?”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“strong sense of self allows you to interact with others in a less inhibited, less bashful way. You have nothing to apologize for because you are worth just as much as anyone else on the planet.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“You are simply experiencing an uncomfortable and challenging pattern that is limiting your choices and options.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Instead, you will learn how to tolerate rejection, how to strengthen yourself to the inevitable rejections you will face on your path towards success. As you apply the strategies in this book, you will become inoculated to rejection and it will no longer cripple you or hold you back.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Worse still, once you buy into the idea that you are somehow defective and not lovable, then you perceive it as inevitable that, sooner or later, you will make a mistake, and the group will kick you out.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The only difference between you and someone who you consider “normal” is this one belief.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Helping you shed your fear of other people is the whole point of this program. To make sure you are no longer frightened of their judgments, dislikes or rejection. To help you have the self-esteem to reveal who you are, what you are about, your thoughts, your feelings, your experience—the vulnerable, authentic you that you value and hold dear.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Regardless of who first conveyed to you that you are not good enough, in the present moment, you are now your biggest critic. You have taken the negative messages from others and internalized them, making them part of yourself. At this point in your life, you are the one who is repeatedly reinforcing that belief on a daily basis, and re-conditioning yourself to feel that you are not enough.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“A major difficulty in social anxiety, however, is that we frequently feel like we are not good enough. This has been described as toxic shame.2 Toxic shame describes the tendency to feel shame much of the time, even when you have not done anything particularly bad. You regularly believe that there is something wrong with you and that others will reject you because of it. As”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“When we feel like there is something wrong with us, that we are not worthy of love and belonging, we can describe this feeling as shame.1 It is the sense that you are somehow inadequate, bad, inferior or defective. It is a terribly uncomfortable feeling that everyone knows and nobody likes.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“the primary pathway to a life of lasting confidence and trust in yourself is to steadily and regularly step outside of your “comfort zone.” This involves doing things that you used to avoid, and approaching what scares you in social interactions. At first, this might feel incredibly uncomfortable, like jumping off the high dive at a pool. However, over time you will start to see that you get accustomed to trying new things, and that what once scared you no longer seems so intimidating.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The mask is an essential part of life that helps us function in our world. Is there a problem with the mask? Yes. When we believe we have to wear the mask at all times because of our fear of judgment, then we are unable to reveal our true selves. This leads to the circular fear of social anxiety: I am afraid people will judge me, but if they knew I was afraid of being judged, they would judge me even more. This fear blocks us from revealing ourselves as we are in the moment, and keeps the mask frozen in place.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“When anxious, you might tend to look away frequently, and keep your eyes cast down towards the floor.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“if you do not plan on speaking publicly, this communication secret can help ensure that others are hearing you clearly, and are listening to what you’re saying. It will also help you gain greater respect in your relationships with friends, coworkers, and life partners. In order to get comfortable with the volume of your voice and speaking with conviction, I highly recommend you find a private place to practice, whether in your car during your commute, in the shower, or sitting in your kitchen. Wherever you choose, make sure you are comfortable, and experiment with projecting your voice, concluding sentences with force, and finishing your statements with conviction. The more you practice, the more it will naturally emerge in conversations with others.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“During my public speaker training, I learned it is inevitable that I will sometimes misspeak, stumble over my words, or make some sort of mistake. This prospect used to terrify me, and it was one of the reasons I avoided speaking so avidly. But what I realized was that it did not seem to matter when I made a mistake, if I applied the principle described in this section. I discovered I could mispronounce a word and even say something that did not quite make sense as long as I finished the statement with a tone of conviction, authority, and confidence.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The most basic way to begin this practice is to consciously increase your speaking volume to a level that is in the normal-to-loud range. This is the volume that is loud enough so that everyone can hear what you are saying, but it is not so loud that it seems unusual. In addition, you can practice counteracting the tendency to trail off or mumble at the end of a phrase by consciously increasing your volume as you speak a phrase. When you do this, the last word you say will be slightly louder than the first one you spoke. This experiment can help you learn and practice one of the most important secrets of communication. It is not what you say… it’s how you say it”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“When you believe this, you will keep most of what you think and feel to yourself. After all, who would really care anyway? As a result, if we are in a situation where we are forced to speak, we do the best we can to discount what we are saying. We speak in a quiet, hesitant manner. We may mumble or trail off at the end of a statement. This makes us difficult to hear and understand, and easy to write-off as unconvincing and insignificant. This is one of the many self-fulfilling prophecies of shyness. We assume others do not care what we have to say, so we communicate in a way that makes others less interested in what we have to say. In order to free your voice, speak up for yourself, and take bold action towards being yourself in the world. Consciously speaking louder can produce a powerful shift in how you feel and in how others respond to you.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The ultimate point is to see that aside from what happens in our own minds, the actual harm or danger of rejection is often very minor.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“The same holds true for social anxiety—which we can also call social phobia, or social fear. In this case, you’re afraid that others will judge, ridicule, dislike, or reject you. As you work your way up your fear hierarchy, you will expose yourself to greater levels of judgment and rejection. It’s important to realize that the purpose of completing these activities is not to succeed without any negative responses or rejections, but to actually experience rejection.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“When we face rejection, it can be a poignant time to tap into our desire, motivation, drive, and passion to pursue what we most want. • Why do I want this? • Why does it matter to me? • Am I willing to do whatever it takes to get there?”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Personalizing is a term used to describe taking too much personal responsibility for a situation that involves multiple people and multiple elements. It occurs when we conclude that the rejection was totally our fault and it reflects our personal inadequacy. Somewhere in all of our minds we have learned this formula:”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back

“Instead of seeing your anxiety as evidence of personal failure or inadequacy, you can start to see it as an inevitable part of being human. Perhaps fear, anxiety, anger, and other kinds of suffering are just part of being a person on this planet, and there is nothing wrong with you for feeling those emotions.”
― Aziz Gazipura, The Solution To Social Anxiety: Break Free From The Shyness That Holds You Back