Topics: Self
I very often get so caught up in my thoughts and self-perception that I seldom realise that other people don’t have the same (or as much) information about me as I do.
That is not a bad thing, but a _good one.
I tend to get socially anxious because I assume that everyone I meet and everyone I get along with know me to the extent that I do. I assume they know all that I do, all that I am, all of my faults and shortcomings, all of that I stand for, etc. The truth is, however, that nobody else in the world but me knows all that about myself, and ultimately, how others see me also depends on them and how they perceive what I externally show (whether intentionally or not), which is certainly not everything about me.
Understanding this, along with the fact that I am not (fully) responsible for how others perceive me and that others’ perception of me doesn’t define who I am, was a key part of my self-discovery process. It very much inspired me to just be myself and to stop worrying so much about how others perceive me.