Our very own Sin Howard from George Drive has opened up about her struggles with social anxiety after making the decision to travel solo overseas for a brand trip.
You might have seen she travelled across the ditch last week for a trip to Sydney and on her flight home, she wrote something about her experience to share with the George FM whanau.
She opened up about how she’s been struggling with social anxiety since lockdown and when offered the opportunity to go on the trip, she originally declined.
“I identified after lockdown that I had bad social anxiety issues and the thought of going anywhere alone literally made my stomach feel yuck and I just simply wouldn’t,” she said.
She explained that simple things like getting her tyres changed or going to the supermarket would make her uncomfortable and she would have to bring Brook or her boyfriend Graham with her.
“I so so wanted to go but I was too scared,” she said.
She explained that making friends as an adult without having a safe person there as well as fearing she would be a nuisance to the brand were intimidating aspects of the trip.
With reassurance from people that love her, she decided to say yes and practising daily moments of independence ahead of the trip, which she and Brook like to call a ‘Sindependent moment’.
Whether this was a solo trip to the coffee shop or going to the supermarket alone or talking to people around the office, just simply being okay with being seen in public.
“I used to say all the time, I don’t want to do shit that scares me, I’m happy living in my safe zone” she explained.
After deciding to go on the trip, Sin explained that she had a great time, made friends, asked questions in front of a group of people, listened and learnt from some incredible people and didn’t feel awkward standing in line to take her seat on the plane.
“I wanted to share this on the show today in the hopes that maybe it helps someone else who is facing similar issues,” she said.
“I’m not saying say yes to everything and anything that comes your way, because learning how to say no is actually just as important” she clarified.
“I’m saying dip your toes into the unknown sometimes cause those times help grow your safe zone and that is how we grow.”
Ka pai.
Bloody proud of our girl Sin for talking about such an important topic that many struggle with and pushing herself out of her comfort zone!
