Are the upcoming holidays sparking feelings of social anxiety? You are not alone! In this candid episode of the Second Wind podcast, Judy Marie shares a personal struggle and offers four practical, powerful tools to help you navigate social settings with greater calm and resilience.
Social anxiety is primarily a physical experience—a nervous system response—before it's a cognitive one. Judy Marie explains how to regulate this response and change the patterns that keep anxiety alive.
In this episode, you will learn four key tools:
Calming the Body with Breathwork: Use the specific 4-2-6 breath technique to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, lower your heart rate, and signal safety to your brain.
Mindfulness and CBD Use: Explore how non-psychoactive CBD may help relax the nervous system, reduce tension, and create more room for therapeutic tools to work. (Remember to consult your healthcare provider and start small).
Gradual Exposure: Combat the main fuel of anxiety—avoidance—by creating a list of social situations from least to most threatening and practicing success in small, repeated steps.
Cognitive Reframing: Use the Three R technique (Recognize, Reevaluate, Replace) to weaken distorted thoughts like "Everyone is judging me" and replace them with more balanced truths.
Judy Marie also highly recommends the documentary "Sensitive: The Untold Story" for a deeper understanding of social anxiety and the gift of being highly sensitive. Healing isn't about changing who you are; it's about learning how to work with your nervous system.
