I Feel Embarrassed All. The. Time.

I’ve been doing some thinking… about stupidity. Stupidity, embarrassment, and fear. 

The truth is I feel stupid all the time. I regularly catch myself feeling embarrassed or stupid about the most random things. 

I’ll be walking down the street and get a pang of anxiety in my gut when I think about putting myself out there. Then the thoughts come. 

“That’s so stupid.”

“Nobody cares.”

“That’s embarrassing.”

“You’re too much.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Who are you helping?”

When this happens I take a deep breath, and I remind myself that those feelings aren’t facts. Those thoughts aren’t facts. 

Those thoughts and feelings are uncomfortable, but I can survive being uncomfortable.

If occasionally feeling uncomfortable is the price I have to pay for being authentic, creative, and courageous then that’s just how it is. There’s no way I would give up the life I’m working toward because sometimes my brain goes wild and tells me I’m embarrassing.

Instead, I lean into being uncomfortable. What does being uncomfortable tell me about myself?

Where can I grow?

Where can I set a boundary?

Where am I just holding myself back?

Where do I need to take accountability? 

Moving through the discomfort with curiosity and self-compassion has been the best way of dealing with it. Pushing it down and ignoring it only makes the feelings fester. 

Unfortunately, being human means that we need to feel our feelings or face the consequences of shoving them aside. The good thing is that it gets easier. 

When we practice, we get better at navigating and learning from our negative feelings instead of being consumed by them. 

So go out and do something that makes you feel a little uncomfortable today. You’ll survive, I promise.