Hello and welcome to the Calmar You podcast. This is your host, Chloe Brotheridge. I'm a coach, a

hypnototherapist, and I'm the author of The Anxiety Solution and Brave New Girl. And this podcast is all

about helping you to become your calmest, happiest and most confident self. So years ago, I used to work in advertising. It was my first

job. And at the time, I was drinking quite a lot of alcohol, to be honest, and that gave me a

certain amount of confidence. But underneath it all, I massively struggled with feeling

okay and myself. I felt very much not okay. I was pretty socially anxious. I was a real

closed book. You know, it was really hard to get to know me and that stopped me from making

friends and connecting with people fully. And I remember one day in this advertising agency that

was working for, we were in the boardroom and we were playing this game whereby you had to

toss around a kind of glittery ball and if you caught the ball you had to come up with a creative

idea for the advertising campaign on the spot. And now this is basically my worst nightmare.

I remember catching the ball and just, you know, my mind

going completely blank and being unable to speak and unable to offer anything and get involved.

And that was obviously pretty mortifying and embarrassing. And even worse is that looking back,

I can see now, and I know myself, I'm actually pretty good at thinking

of creative ideas and plays on words and that's one of my strengths I would say, but at the time,

I just didn't have the confidence to be able to express that or to even trust that what I would

have to say would be anything of value.

And I just think that's such a shame.

And I know that there are so many of us who are in that position,

those of us who maybe are more on the shy side or the sensitive side.

And we are naturally creative.

...