Embarrassment is a common experience throughout our lives. The source of our embarrassment varies from individual to individual. Maybe we made an awkward remark during a conversation. Or perhaps we feel insecure about a failed achievement. Regardless of the reason, feeling embarrassed often leads to other conditions like anxiety, self-doubt, and shame.
Sometimes, an embarrassing moment comes and goes quickly. However, there are also severe instances where the humiliation manifests into long-term anxiety. You might feel so insecure about a part of yourself that it debilitates your confidence. If the embarrassment is recurring and affects your mental health, you should seek support from counselling services. A counsellor can offer empathetic support and gentle guidance to ease your anxiety.
There are many ways to move on from embarrassment and shame. Once you have fine-tuned the ability, you can walk through life feeling proud and confident in yourself. Here are the coping strategies for how to get over embarrassment:
How to deal with embarrassment
The natural tendency with embarrassment is to hide from it. Shame isn’t a pleasant feeling, so we repress our thoughts and avoid confronting the situation. However, avoidance isn’t always the best solution for dealing with embarrassment. It only emphasizes the fear, shame, and anxiety of the problem.
The best way for dealing with embarrassment is to acknowledge when something bothers you. Admit that you feel embarrassed, even if it’s just you talking to yourself privately. It can be stressful to hide your insecurities. Instead, your emotional honesty can feel liberating and free you from anxieties.
What to do when you get embarrassed
You may not be able to reverse an embarrassing situation. However, you can change your reaction to what happened and alter your perspective accordingly. The best way for letting go of embarrassment is to manage your perceptions. Don’t be too critical of yourself after an embarrassing comment or humiliating moment. Remember that anyone can make a mistake. Plus, your negativity won’t improve the situation.
Be kind to yourself. Start with making positive affirmations every day. Statements like “I am confident” or “I am enough” can boost morale and reassure you. Increase your self-confidence, one day at a time. Consider what you’d say to a friend going through the same embarrassing experience. That’s what you should be saying to yourself.
How to forget an embarrassing memory
Many embarrassing moments occur before an audience. Something humiliating may have happened to you in front of friends, coworkers, or strangers. Your anxiety increases as you become worried and distressed about their responses. It may be one of your concerns that the embarrassing memory will define their opinions of you.
The reality is that most people won’t maintain a lasting impression of your embarrassment. It is insignificant to them. The incident will come and go, becoming a distant memory. When you hang onto embarrassment, you amplify the issue even though others have already moved on from the situation. You can shrink the longevity of an embarrassing memory by realizing it only lasts for the short term. Nobody else will remember after a while.
How to recover from an embarrassing moment
Sometimes, we struggle to move past a major embarrassment in our lives. The shame is so ingrained internally that we feel depressed about the humiliation. Fortunately, there are different ways to recover from embarrassment. Practice soothing exercises to calm your emotions in the present moment. Some ideas include breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga. These activities will help you keep your cool, regain composure, and restore emotional strength.
Journaling is an excellent strategy to recover from embarrassment. Start writing by hand, not on a computer. You can use a journal to express various emotions and thoughts that wouldn’t normally occupy your mind. You can express anger, sadness, happiness, or anything without consequence. Having a journal guides you to process your emotions. This writing exercise will instinctively help you overcome your embarrassment.
How to live with embarrassment
After an embarrassing incident, figure out how you will move forward and plan your next steps. Think of how you will address the shame publicly if others bring up the memory. Humour is an excellent strategy to deflect embarrassment. If you can laugh at yourself, it will weaken the power of humiliation.
Every embarrassing experience comes with a valuable lesson. Maybe the message is that you didn’t prepare enough, or you could have done something differently. There are all sorts of takeaways you can derive from embarrassment. Process what happened to you and search for the deeper meanings, if any.
Embarrassment is only a threat if you allow it to become one. Remember that failures happen to everybody. Think of all the athletes who have lost and moved on. Consider the musicians and artists who persevered through their unpopular works. Don’t let the fear of embarrassment dominate you. The shame is in the past, so adapt these life lessons and move on.