Get Over Embarrassment: How to Move On After a Humiliating Experience

The Newsy Neighbbour Magazine

www.TheNewsyNeighbour.com

August Issue 118

Article Provided By: Naomi Kent

You've gone and done it again. You've put your foot in your mouth, fell flat on your face, or the atomic bomb of all embarrassing social blunders - you've passed wind in front of a couth of people. 

 

Everyone experiences embarrassment at some point in their lives, but the difference between those who obsess over it, and those who are able to put embarrassment behind them is simply a matter of realizing the insignificance of a red-faced moment.

Here are 5 ways to move on with your life after committing a social felony: 

 

1.     Take control of the situation. If you're the first to laugh about it, others will likely follow.  Your immediate reaction to your embarrassment will determine how others remember the situation. If you don't make a big deal out of being embarrassed, it will be quickly forgotten.

 

2.     Remember that the world does not revolve around you. Sure, some people are going to get a laugh out of your embarrassing blunder, and it may even circulate for a few days, but chances are these same people have jobs, families, and worries of their own that will take them away from incessantly thinking about your most recent social gaffe.

 

3.     Use the blooper for your next comedy bit. Imaging sitting around the campfire, and everyone is pumping out stories from the good old days, laughing their heads off.  Now you have something worthwhile to contribute - and it's guaranteed to be the classic of the evening. You'll be receiving so much attention that you'll want to dig up other embarrassing stories.

 

4.     Consider it your 15 seconds of fame. Appreciate that people who did not know you even existed before your embarrassing moment, will now address you on a first name basis.

 

5.     Know that in a hundred years or less, everyone who witnessed the event will most likely be dead - and therefore, it will be like your embarrassing moment never happened. Unless your blunder was documented on film, live in the comfort that someday it will be erased from history.

 

If you can learn to laugh at yourself, those embarrassing moments won't seem like such a big deal. By all means, make amends if your blunder has offended another person, but refrain from dwelling on the situation if you want maintain your mental health. Remember, we all make our share of mistakes and everyone gets embarrassed at one time or another. Take comfort in the fact that if people are laughing, they're most likely relating.