Embarrassment

Sometimes embarrassment reflects a sense of low self-worth, unhealthy comparisons between yourself and others, or even a wish you had not agreed to something. The other day I was making a presentation and asked a young woman if she would be comfortable with me using a conversation we had had as an illustration since I thought it could serve as a positive model for others. “Sure,” she had replied. “I’m okay with that if it will help to make things clearer for others present.” So I took her at her word and did just that. Later in the week I discovered that she was telling people, “I was so embarrassed when the speaker started talking about me. In fact, I felt humiliated.” Unfortunately, she did not choose to talk to me about it. Where did this come from? Somewhere in her brain. Perhaps her personal level of self-worth was uncomfortable being the center of attention, however briefly. Maybe she didn’t view our conversation as positively as I had. Nevertheless, your brain believes what you tell it. If you tell it that you are embarrassed or humiliated it will believe that and hang onto it.