Self conscious, and it hurts!

It's a painful, excruciating thing being self conscious. Seems like everyone is watching you, assessing you, judging you, in your business, in your head. How does it make you feel? Makes my jaw tense, my stomach tight, my neck stiff, and it gives me a headache, particularly when I can't stop thinking about what I should do to please everyone. I try to pretend that it isn't there, but that internal voice is still there, with a look of disdain and open-mouthed horror. Why did you do that, it says, you can't ignore what people think. It is very tiring, the whole game of trying to do what everyone wants from you. I don't find that it works very well for me, telling myself, it doesn't matter what they think!

What does work:
Writing - journalling, free-association writing, poems, stories. Get it out on the page, it can help break the loop of thinking about what people think. It can help you connect to your center, to find what it is that is important to you, which can be obscured when you are only thinking about what other people think.

Receiving bodywork (massage, Reiki, shiatsu, BodyTalk)- When you are more connected to yourself, making decisions based on what you think is easier. It can feel uncomfortable to connect to yourself, but it is far better than that free-floating anxious feeling you get when you aren't in your body.

Meditation - Find a quiet place, and connect to your heart, your center. Hang out there for a bit. Don't worry if your mind races, just be gentle with yourself. Try to spend a little bit of time each day practicing connecting to your center, by yourself to begin with. From here, the goal is to be able to connect to your center when you are around others, particularly the people that make you self conscious.