People who suffer from social anxiety tend to feel uncomfortable, tense, or nervous whenever they find themselves in a social spot and they feel disturbed that they may be judged by other people. If you've been suffering from this kind of anxiety, you're not alone.

The truth of the matter is that there are certain points in our lives where we all have experienced this. I mean, don't we get nervous sometimes when we are around certain people? How about first dates and job interviews?

There are lots of moments of self-consciousness where we're likely to feel socially anxious and while this may seem normal, it becomes worrisome when it starts to hinder you from living your life to the fullest and starts occurring too intensely or frequently.

Recognizing if you Have Social Anxiety

The fear of being judged negatively is what brings about social anxiety and people have their unique situations that tend to make them experience this kind of anxiety. While some people can experience this when they're hosting an event, speaking in front of a crowd, or in any similar situation, some may have this anxiety when they're performing or showcasing in front of other people or having an interaction.

For instance, you might feel socially anxious while you're giving a presentation because you're not so comfortable with conversing with strangers at parties, even though you're outgoing. This simply connotes that you can be outgoing and still experience social anxiety....

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Do you know that your tone of voice, posture, gestures, and facial expressions are powerful communication tools? Well, now you know they are. Body language speaks loudest, although these nonverbal cues utter no words. It's the key to achieving success in professional and personal relationships and it could also take your social life to the next level. The bone of contention is that you'll be able to build better work and home relationships when you know how to use your body language to express positivity, which explains why you must learn to understand what body language is, its significance, and how to make it work for you.

What is Body Language?

Body language can be explained to be the way we instinctively communicate nonverbally with the usage of certain mannerisms, gestures, and physical behavior. There are wordless signals you're likely to give and receive consistently when you're interacting with others, and while you may be aware of this, you may also not be aware. You will be sending a very strong message with your eye contact, tone of voice, posture, and gestures, which all form your nonverbal behaviors.

The intricacies of these cues of nonverbal communication, which is also called body language, is that they can be very active both when you're speaking and when you aren't and they can either undermine, confuse, and offend others or make you more appealing, help to build trust, and promote ease. There are even times when your words and your body language may be contrasting. For instance, if you say you're happy and you have a frown on your face, the person you're speaking to will get the message that you're not honest, and the tricky thing about body language is that most people prefer to go for the interpretation of the body language rather than the words of the mouth.

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It can be a bit challenging to socialize if you're used to being quiet or more reserved. However, one thing you should know is that you're not alone if you find it difficult to go to a party where you don't know many people, engage in talks with co-workers, or have a conversation with a stranger. A lot of people have ended up in loneliness and got socially isolated because of their social anxiety or shyness. Nevertheless, the good thing is that you can learn to become a more fun person, enjoy the company of others, become more relaxed in social situations, and be more outgoing, with just a few tweaks without having to compromise who you are and perpetually stay on the conversational sidelines.

Start With Small Steps

They say the journey of one thousand miles starts with a step. Hence, you must be ready to take a step if you truly mean business. So, how do you step up to establish contact with friends, colleagues, acquaintances, strangers, and other people around you? Here are a few tips that can help you out:

• Making eye contact: Okay, let's start with this first. Instead of trying to avoid looking into people's eyes, graduate to making eye contact and expressing friendly gestures.
• Smile: This is level two. After you've mastered the art of making eye contact, then you can proceed to complement it with a smile. Whenever you're out and you meet someone at the office's break room, on the train, or shopping at the grocery store, and the person is directly looking at you, make sure you give a smile. You'll notice that most people will have a positive reaction with a high tendency to smile back. This returned smile can help to make you feel more confident.
• Greeting other people: Now, it's time to combine the eye contact and the smile and introduce greetings. Or perhaps, just graduate to the greeting aspect. You can just give a compliment, ask for advice, or say hello. When you do this more, there's a tendency that you'll feel more natural about it and before you know it, you're out of your shell...    
  

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Despite how important listening is, a lot of us still find it difficult to invest the time and effort to become a better listener. Listening is a very valuable skill in the workplace and it has a huge impact on the growth of businesses and leadership. In this age, active listening is a challenge and an array of factors such as advancements in technology, social media, and ever-growing to-do lists tend to add to the perpetual distractions we face. As significant as listening is, the struggle to listen remains but there are a few steps you can follow and a couple of tips you can make use of to power your listening skills and improve both your home and work relationships

1.Listen to understand.
When it comes to active listening, this component cannot be shrugged off. You must not listen with a prejudged conclusion but with an open mind. Be intentional to understand. When you do this, you'll be able to ask questions that are well-timed and appropriate, instead of making several interruptions when the story is being told. When you listen and aim to understand, this means that you're going into the conversation genuinely and you'll be conscious of noting all the unspoken words such as nonverbal and verbal cues.

2. Use interruptions sparingly.
Many people are fond of this. Once someone is having a conversation with them, the only thing they've programmed in their mind is how to quickly “chip in” something, which is probably to disagree with what's said. Using interruptions sparingly is very vital when you're practicing active listening. Before you chip in your interpretation of what the speaker has said or come up with your questions, make sure you let the speaker finish his or her thought.

Oftentimes, we have an untamed eagerness to interrupt people because of the thoughts that have been sparked by their comments Little do we know that these interruptions tend to send a message like “I no longer have interest in what you're saying because you're taking too long” or “You don't know as much as I do.”...

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If you want to succeed in your workplace, you need communication. And speaking of success, you as an employee as well as the company have a good chance of enjoying success when good communication ensues. If you're working with a team at your workplace, you'll need to communicate clearly and consistently so that you can get things done and achieve your goals because poor communication can make the team and the company suffer huge impacts.

The Relevance of Communication in the Workplace

The relationships you have with those you work with can be impacted by good communication. Working with your clients, bosses, and coworkers demands that you learn to communicate well, but when you don't have the skill, there's a probability that your chances of success will be blurred.

When you're in a leadership position at your workplace, you should know that your team expects you to give them clear information. With the clear information you give, you'll be carrying everyone along on the vision and no one would be left hanging. However, if you don't communicate well, you'll be left to captain a rudderless ship. Communication is immensely vital in three areas of our work....

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If you've been scouting for a skill to learn, it's advisable that you consider
beefing up your conversation skills which also fall under communication.
For you to be able to build solid relationships and relate with your
partners, family, and friends, you need to know how to hold a good
conversation because it's likely that many people will want to avoid you if
you have poor conversational skills. Communicating with someone with
poor conversational skills can be quite frustrating.

Being a Good Listener

Listening is the number one thing in conversations and it's also one of the
vital rudiments of a conversation. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not
really understand how vital listening is in the communication process
because they feel communication is all about making their voices heard.

When you practice the art of listening, it shows that you respect people
and it will pave an easy path for you to build rapport. The beautiful thing
about listening is that it makes people become attracted to you. Somehow,
you'll just notice that out of several other people, you'll become the
favorite everyone wants to speak to. Why? Because you listen.

As simple as listening seems to be, a lot of people find it to be nauseating.
Yet, you cannot communicate to the person you are having a conversation
with that you care when you don't listen. Think of it yourself, how do you
feel when you're talking to someone and the person is listening intently to
you?

Now, think otherwise, do you also feel the same way when the person
you're talking to doesn't listen? You see, listening is a simple, silent but
powerful act that can take your conversations to the next level and
improve your relationships. Nevertheless, it's worthy to point out that
there's a difference between being shy and listening, irrespective of the
fact that people tend to mix the two up. You might be hesitant or shy and
may not be listening...

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Two cannot walk together except if they agree and therefore communication has always been a tool to facilitate understanding between people and help us carry out our usual activities without glitches. Maybe you have a presentation, you're writing an email, or carrying out any simple task, your progress and productivity can be affected by how you communicate.

As a result, it becomes expedient that both the message receiver and sender do not have miscommunication accruing from the delivered message. In today's world, technology has made communication easier but regardless, many people still find it herculean to communicate without being misunderstood or misinterpreted.

5 Killer Skills to Make Your Message Clear 

There are two major forms of communication, which are written and verbal. If you're going to be communicating orally or you're employing a written medium, the first thing you should do is to proofread and scrutinize what you have prepared before you proceed to finalize the copy.

It would also be helpful if you can look out for other possible interpretations of the message to know if there's any need to make further...

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As simple as communication may seem, it can shape the course of your life positively or negatively. Communication plays a significant role in all areas of your life and your personal life, social gatherings, and work-life aren't immune to its effects.

For instance, just as you need good communication skills to be able to enjoy better relationships with your romantic partner and loved ones, you also need to communicate effectively with your colleagues at work so that you can achieve success and shield your professional career from hitting the rock.

You'll be amazed at how all aspects of your life will be incredibly fine-tuned when you develop effective interpersonal communication skills for these skills will help you present your points accurately, tailor your thoughts wisely, and deliver your ideas precisely. Here are some of what you stand to enjoy when you improve your communication skills....

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