Do you know what self-consciousness is?

Here is an example.   

When you are in a social situation and someone puts you in place, they may ask you an awkward or difficult question and, suddenly, you become Conscious of yourself, you concentrate on yourself and your reaction.   You begin to notice how nervous you feel.   This is self-consciousness, focus on yourself.   Your brain can not give an answer and you look worried and nervous and your confidence decreases.   You feel embarrassed and more self-conscious and it gets even worse.

  Another example,

 you are suddenly asked to speak in front of a large group of people.   Suddenly, you feel eyes and you are Conscious of the adrenaline rush, and then you feel that you are sweating or trembling.   You cannot think because you are focused on your own physical reaction.   The moment you need to act, you are focused on yourself and you get even more nervous.   This is self-consciousness and prevents you from having confidence and prevents you from focusing on the task.

 How does self-consciousness affect your confidence?

 Totally destroying it is the answer because it increases your anxiety!   When you are in a stressful social situation, you need to relax to have confidence, and if you can not, you will not feel in control and you will not be relaxed. Your body language will tell others that you are not sure, which will affect the way you feel. They act towards you and this will make you feel even more uncomfortable.   When you are relaxed, you look and feel confident and in control, and your mind is Free to think about the challenge you face.   Maybe you are talking to an important person or a member of the opposite sex whom you find attractive and all you want is to be yourself and act with confidence.   Self-consciousness makes you nervous and prevents you from being natural,   In short, it affects you negatively.

 Public speakers know that self-consciousness is an enemy and they learn to overcome it.   Everyone gets nervous when speaking in public, but overcoming self-consciousness is a step to being a confident and successful public speaker.

 In any social situation, especially in those that are more difficult, you must remove the focus of yourself and what your body is doing with respect to what you want to do: speak well and present yourself in a positive way.   In cases of extreme self-consciousness, you can focus on a physical characteristic and imagine, say, that your nose is too long or something like that.   You may feel ugly or uncomfortable, but if you suffer from this, you can benefit from advice on how to feel attractive.

 How can you concentrate on your answers to questions or on your response to someone if you are occupied with increasingly worrisome negative thoughts that only make you timider and stressed?   How can you be at your best when you are inside of you panicking and confused?