Fear: An Interesting Discovery

A lot of the fear I have surrounds interaction with other humans. Other humans can be very intimidating, especially if you spend a hefty portion of your waking hours thinking about how terrible and unskilled you are and how wonderful and skilled everyone else must be. Talking to other people becomes a horrible and daunting task that will inevitably end in spiritual turmoil.

Here is the equation:
Stupidity (me) + Excellence (you) + Desire for conversation (mostly you) = Spiritual turmoil (me) + Disgust (you)

But maybe not. And here comes the discovery: A lot of people are completely content to talk mainly about themselves and their own experiences. There is a good chance they just want you along to listen and provide some occasional input. This relieves a lot of the pressure I have associated with social interaction.

Now the equation reads more like this:
Me + You + You wanting to talk about yourself = An excellent outlet for your rants and expression


Interesting stuff.
However, an issue that this discovery does not address is interaction with shy people, who oftentimes appear more interesting than the more extroverted type. Not necessarily because they are more interesting, but because there's mystery. For example, if I'm chatting with you (extroverted type), I know the things on your mind are: the delights of pistachios, going to your boyfriend's house, and how dumb that professor is.
If I've never heard you speak in my life, you could be thinking about any number of things: how wonderful and beautiful you think I am, the negative effects civilization has upon everyone involved, the kayaking trip you might be planning, when you're going to begin the next novel you want to write, etc.
Although I must admit that pistachios really are delightful, which sounds more interesting to you?
That's right.

As a side note, another method for dealing with fear:
Imagining your audience as fluffy cats. I auditioned for a solo in choir last week, and I was about to panic a little bit, and there was way to many people for me to imagine them all in underwear, so I just imagined them all as my cat, Stuckwell.

Stuckwell!

This is much easier and requires less mental exertion than the underwear trick, because all I have to do is imagine Stuckwell once and then replicate that image 75 times. And really, when your cat is that cute, you should WANT to replicate them that many times. But only in your head. Vet bills might skyrocket otherwise.