I had a really positive experience yesterday. It is one of those things that might sound quite silly because it seems so trivial, but I think we all have these things that seem trivial to most people but are just huge to us.
For me, blushing has always been something that I just hated and it has stopped me doing so many things. I often used to blush if people said certain words (often related to sex), or mentioned somebody's name (not just men I was attracted to, but often just random people), or sometimes just for no reason I could understand. One of the worst words was "virgin".
Anyway, I've worked pretty hard on this aspect of my anxiety, and made good progress. Mostly now when people say things that would have made me blush in the past I just remind myself that there is no need to be anxious and I realise that I feel ok and then the moment passes (yay!!!).
So yesterday at choir someone refered to a section of music that was about the Virgin Mary and called it "the virgin bit". At that moment I realised that I definitely wasn't going to blush and that I didn't feel anxious at all. For some reason the word "virgin" got repeated about 4 times with variations ("virginity" as well) and I just sat there thinking "YES, YES, say it as many times as you like because I'm not going to freak out or blush or even feel slightly worried".
Anyway, that felt really good. It was a step up from doing a little mental routine to stop myself from becoming anxious.
Lately I've felt like I was going backwards with my anxiety and also I've had to work hard to avoid becoming depressed (it is winter and I have decided to try and get through winter without antidepressants for the first time in a decade). So this little thing has given me a much-needed boost.
By the way, welcome to ScaredGirl! And thanks to everyone who keeps posting positive things, because I feel good reading that other people are achieving things too.