Enhance Mental Wellness & Reduce Social Anxiety

No man is an island and it is well established that we are social creatures. We need to interact and transact with people in various capacities. That necessitates the art of getting along with others. 

In order to get along well with people, we need to hone a few skills within ourselves. 

1. Assessing People: This is the foremost skill of ensuring a healthy and pleasant social life. You need to develop the ability to assess people. This means understanding their intrinsic nature, through careful study and observation.

Just as in the animal kingdom there are the fierce carnivores, meek herbivores, and shrewd scavengers, similarly different humans have different temperaments. Some are humble, some are arrogant, some are patient and some have a short fuse. The animals have a collective nature. For example, all tigers are ferocious, all deer are timid.

However, in humans, each person is unique and people don’t have collective temperaments. That’s why in order to deal efficiently with others, it is important to develop the ability to assess the other person’s intrinsic nature. 

2. Making Right Contact: Next crucial social skill is the Art of Right Contact. Once we understand the nature of things and the people around us, we need to contact them accordingly. Just as we will keep a safe distance from a carnivore and lovingly pat a cat or a cow, likewise, we need to know how and in what capacity to reach out to the people around us.

3. Accept: Even after understanding the others’ nature, we often make the mistake of expecting people to act apart from their nature.  How can that be? A crude person will be so, a miser will behave stingily, and so on. All of us function helplessly the way our natures are encrypted. It is a serious error to expect people to behave otherwise.

The Takeaway

Every person is a mixed bag of good and bad. You would do well by not triggering the negative side of people and inducing positive behaviors in people. Relationship problems often manifest when we do the opposite of this. We fail to notice the good things on offer and only get caught up with people’s shortcomings.

If you are having a hard time managing your social interactions, dealing with people, or handling overpowering emotions that leave you anxious and worried, reach out to us for a Personal Consultation with a Psychologist or Enroll In Our Self-Help Online Program, Anxiety Relief. 

About Author: Rajni Agarwal is a Psychotherapist & Mental Health Consultant. She has 20+ years of counseling experience with kids and adults. She practices non-directive, person-centered, psychoanalytic, holistic therapy.