Can Enlightenment Work Cure Social Anxiety?

[Endangered-EGO]

@TDW1995 Was your social anxiety there before Meditation? Because Meditation increases your Awareness of your Body and emotions. For example you realise how much you sweat you blush etc. And being aware of that is a vicious circle of fear realising that you have fear increases your fear which fuels adrenaline which fuels fear.

Enlightenment cures your social anxiety, but its like building a nuclear bomb to solve a rat infestation problem in a house. You can do it, but maybe it would be smarter to work on your social anxiety to make your life easier first? Enlightenment is not an escape. If shoots everything up until you surrender to it.

If you want to do both, I recommend Shadow work, shadow work helps with social anxiety and it is absolutely necessary for enlightenment. Also, there is nothing wrong with social anxiety therapy or even psychiatric help like medication.

If you force awakenings, your fear of people will be replaced by the fear of the nothingness. (Dark night of the soul) It is like quitting smoking by replacing it with heroin. It will work instantly, but the fear of the nothingness is so bad, that you forget about social anxiety. Been there done that.

So I recommend: Shadow work, psychiatric help. You can take pills that take away your social anxiety instantly. Don't just take pills, but do the psychological work too. Combining both gives the best results. If you continue meditation, this will increase your growth drastically, your psychiatrist wont believe it. Meditation on Infinity take all your fears away for a while too. It worked for me, but its not the best/fastest way for social anxiety.

[LovingAwareness]

@Dutch guy I would second this and throw in some pranayam breathing techniques.

[Endangered-EGO]

@Dutch guy It says general anxiety not social anxiety. Of course relaxing the Body while meditating relaxes the mind. But it also increases awareness. So during social interactions (you obviously don't meditate) your notice your fear stronger which fuels the fear in a vicious circle. Believe me, been there done that. Yoga nidra doesn't solve Social anxiety.  That's my view on it. If you find the same proof specifically with social anxiety I will shut up.

Cold showers and wim hof breathing helped me too, but you know you cant take a shower before every social interaction.

[TDW1995]

@Endangered-EGO Thanks for the detailed response.  My social anxiety has been around since I was a kid, but it has improved to this day.  Therefore, it was present before I started meditating 4.5 years ago (I'm 24 years old now). However, I do still feel a little anxious in social situations.  I do believe that meditation can be extremely beneficial, but it requires me to be conscious of my own body in social situations.  Maybe if I get to the point where each moment of life feels like a meditation, keeping my awareness on the body will be almost effortless.

I've heard about cold showers and how they can help with anxiety as well.  By putting yourself in unwanted situations, you're priming the body for moments where you'll be uncomfortable.  However, I do realize that this doesn't replace practicing in social interactions.  

[UnconsciousHuman]

@TDW1995 

Social anxiety is fear. You resist a certain outcome. You are afraid of a reality and are trying to resist it. In the case with social anxiety it may be that you are resisting “not being liked”. 
My advice is to develop mindfulness through practices like meditation and then to expose the underlying fear/resistance that pops up in social situations.
Tip: you have to socialize a lot, and fail a lot.

Tip 2: use psychedelics to contemplate that fear.

[Endangered-EGO]

@TDW1995  Okay I have to be honest, my social anxiety started after getting out of the Dark night of the soul, did some things I regretted while feeling invulnerable thanks to the detachment. For me it was part of ego backlash.

Honestly, I believe you should do shadow work, and fear-work. For fear, just imagine the worst case scenario will happen, and BE OKAY with it. Once you are able to be okay with the worst case scenario, you will be FREE from the fear. You can also gradually put yourself in uncomfortable situations.

@AwakenedSoul444 Not all medication works for everybody.