How to look confident in awkward moments
Whether you like it or not, we all react strangely at some point in our lives. And sometimes, it prevents us from connecting with other people or even trusting ourselves. That’s why in this post, we’re going to talk about how to look confident in awkward moments.
If you have self-control, you can turn these uncomfortable situations into confidence.
How to look confident in awkward moments?
- Modify your body language
- Laugh at jokes against you
- Tell embarrassing stories
1. Modify your body language
First, you can improve your confidence and people’s perception of you if you learn to change a few things about your body language.
Rule of 3 seconds
For example, you can follow the rule of 3 seconds of eye contact. This will generate a good impression and will convey calm and serenity.
This technique consists of, instead of looking down or to the side during a conversation, or fixing the other person’s eyes, should maintain eye contact with everyone around you for at least 3 seconds.
It doesn’t have to be this exact number of seconds, but it is the time for a person to feel that she makes part of the conversation. But if you happen to be only listening to what only one person has to say, you can maintain eye contact longer.
Showing the palm of your hand
The three-second rule is a straightforward way to get someone’s attention, even if you’re nervous at the time. To add to this, you can also show the palm of your hands and gesture a lot while talking. Doing this adds a lot of expressiveness and interest to your stories.
But remember, not just hand gestures that convey this impression. When you show the palm of your hands, you avoid falling into the trap that people tend to fall into when they’re nervous or anxious.
When you hide the palm of your hand, you non-verbally convey that you may be hiding something. So while speaking, take your hands out of your pockets, especially at times when you feel tense, don’t hold the table when you’re speaking, or grab the chair. Just by showing them, you will look more confident and honest.
Commitment
You have to always apply this rule, the commitment. It is useful for every moment when you have to face a complicated situation or one that makes you feel ashamed. Whether karaoke, dancing or speaking for a large number of people.
There will be times when you will be subjected to extremely embarrassing situations. In these moments, many people would feel afraid of being judged or criticized, and unconsciously would limit their movements and facial expressions so as not to draw so much attention.
Unfortunately, this lack of expression reveals you are not at ease and causes strangeness in everyone around you. But by committing 100 percent to even doing something embarrassing, you can turn a situation that had everything to be disastrous into something where your confidence shines through on its own.
You need to be brave to commit yourself to awkward moments. Therefore, when you do something weird, on purpose or unintentionally, the best thing to do, is to go through with what you did.
When you take control of an embarrassing situation, you exude more confidence than anyone else.
2. Laugh at jokes against you
This brings us to another point, the times when people make you feel uncomfortable.
It’s normal for friends to joke with each other and sometimes make fun of you. So, you have to know how to deal with these jokes. Because if you don’t know how to behave in these situations, you will always be the main target.
Occupy more space
So, when the joke is made against you but it’s not malicious, one thing you can do is take up more space. By doing this, you convey that you are comfortable and not afraid to touch your friends and take control of the physical space around you.
There is no kind of threat implied when you do this. But unconsciously, you convey to people that there is no reason to mess with you.
Laugh with the group
As most people do, which is to respond and counterattack with another joke, you can just laugh with your group. Your friends get what they want, laugh, and you show them that you can separate who you are from the characteristic of you they were laughing at.
Maybe they’re laughing at your haircut, clothes, or some action you’ve done in the past. But if you have to make it clear that none of that defines who you are, that’s why you can laugh with them.
This mentality separates people who are usually the butt of jokes from people who are not because they don’t care about them.
Emphasize the joke
For this ability to laugh at yourself to be more powerful, you must place more emphasis on the joke. At first, it may seem like you’ve become the target, but when you do, you’ll find yourself taking back control of the situation.
The objective is to convert the situation that would probably make you uncomfortable into a situation that transmits good humor and confidence. That’s how you look confident in awkward moments.
But remember, these tips are good when your friends’ jokes aren’t malicious.
3. Tell embarrassing stories
If you think that sometimes others may find you strange, it’s probably because they know the shameful stories about you. So instead of letting these stories define who you are, the best thing you can do is learn how to tell good stories based on those moments.
When you do that, again, you exude extreme confidence. Because you turn into someone who isn’t afraid to reveal the things that most people would be ashamed to reveal.
Apply the tips about body language that we talked
When telling embarrassing things about yourself, likely, your body language won’t be perfect, but try to apply the tips we talked about in point one.
These tips, in addition to helping to capture people’s attention, are a way to show confidence.
Choose words that generate impact
For your stories to have an emotional impact, you must choose impactful words. It’s no secret that the best stories always seem like exaggerated versions of the truth. People need a reason to listen to a long story.
Therefore, incorporating words that in themselves generate emotions is an uncomplicated way to capture the public’s attention. Words like stress, panic, wonderful, and amazing are words that generate curiosity and enthusiasm.
Play the characters in your stories
You hold people’s attention even more if you play the characters in your stories. This means modifying your body language, going overboard with your interpretations, changing your tone of voice, and even mimicking someone else’s accent.
You don’t need to know how to imitate voices, but just trying makes the story much funnier.
Conclusion
With the right mindset, you don’t have to memorize every technique for every specific situation. These charismatic habits will flow naturally.
Remember that all these embarrassing situations you face will always be worse if you try to make other people see another side of you.
Stop wanting to control what other people think of you, and the cringe moments will disappear.
That’s how you look confident in awkward situations. It’s not easy at the beginning, but with time everything goes as you want. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you!
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