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Social anxiety is common and can intensify in high-stakes work settings.

Start with awareness, not avoidance. Mindfulness builds awareness and creates distance from anxious thoughts.

Calming the body through breath and imagery reduces anxiety’s grip on you.

Prepared, values-driven conversations weaken avoidance and build confidence.

About 12 percent of people experience social anxiety at any given time, and for roughly a third, it causes serious impairment. At work, that anxiety can spike because you are already striving to put your best work forward, give public speeches, and/or challenge others' ideas.

For those experiencing moderate to serious impairment due to their social anxiety, working with a mental health professional is critical. Therapy offers structured, evidence-based care. If your symptoms are mild or you are waiting to find the right clinician, there are practical tools that can help you reduce anxiety and step forward.

1. Begin With Self-Awareness

Social anxiety thrives on autopilot. Your mind predicts rejection. Your body braces for threat. You react before you reflect. Mindfulness interrupts that loop.

Mindfulness can be simple. Notice the sounds around you. What is a constant hum? What's intermittent? Then shift your attention to the sensation of sitting—the weight of your body in the chair, your feet on the floor. Finally, widen your focus to what you can see around you. Notice where your anxiety sits in your body: tight chest, flushed face, clenched jaw.

Next, notice your worries. Are they about your work performance? Relationships with your colleagues? Your boss? When you notice the worry, gently label it: “I am having the thought that I will mess up my words.” Then once you have labelled it, let it float by. A thought is not a fact. Then, return to the present.

If anxiety resurfaces, label it again: “I am worrying again.” You are not trying to eliminate the feeling. You are learning to observe it without being pulled under.

2. Learn Relaxation Techniques

An anxious brain sends signals to the body to panic. A calm body can send signals back to the brain to relax. Practice relaxation techniques when you aren't in worry mode. This helps you build the skill and memory of how to do it when you are feeling anxious.

Start with diaphragmatic breathing. Sit upright. Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest. Breathe normally. Which hand moves? If your chest rises more than your belly, gently shift your breath downward so your abdomen expands. It will feel unnatural at first—stay with it.

Gradually extend your inhale and exhale to about five seconds each. Find a time where you can practice this daily: before bed, while watching TV, in the bath, or during your morning coffee.

You can also use imagery to create distance from your intrusive thoughts. Picture yourself sitting on a grassy hill. Sunlight warms your face. Birds call from a nearby tree. A slow train passes about 30 feet away. Now, place each anxious thought onto one of these train cars. Watch it roll by. One car for one thought. If no thoughts arise, imagine a car labeled “no thoughts.” The point is not to stop thinking. It is to see thoughts as passing events.

If you aren't into trains, find an image that does work for you: clouds in the sky, leaves in a stream, balloons drifting upward.

Avoiding social situations will keep the anxiety alive. Gentle, planned exposure will weaken it.

You can practice for a social interaction at work. First, shift your focus to what you want to gain from the social situation. Are you asking for support? Giving feedback? Wanting to raise a concern? Then draft a short script or key messages of what you would like to say. Use “I” statements: “I feel concerned about…” or “I think we might consider…” Identify what you specifically need. It usually will help give you courage if you also explain how your request benefits the other person or the team. Also, note in advance where you may be willing to compromise.

Take our Generalized Anxiety Disorder Test

Find a therapist to overcome anxiety

Practice aloud—in front of a mirror or with a trusted friend. Expect anxiety to show up. But now, it's showing up on your own terms. Then practice your relaxation techniques to release any tight body posture and slow down your heart rate. This helps expose you to the anxiety, but under your own terms. It also gives you the tools to see anxiety as just a passing event, which you can calm yourself out of.

Like any skill, assertive communication improves with practice. Each conversation becomes evidence that discomfort is survivable—and often productive. Anxiety may still whisper. Let it. You are learning to respond, not react.

Chapman, A., Gratz, K., & Tull, M. (2011). The dialectical behavior therapy skills workbook for anxiety: Breaking free from worry, panic, PTSD, and other anxiety symptoms. New Harbinger Publications.

National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/social-anxiety-disorder. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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