work on building social skills The latter is hopeful It acknowledges the emotion but also identifies a specific skill that could be developed to help with the feeling of loneliness If struggling with anxiety a strong chance your internal commentary is overly critical and harsh But perhaps your anxious thoughts and behaviors about situations and events have more to do with the critical reaction you anticipate from others and less to do with the situations themselves Imagine a friend who every time you hit a setback tells you what you did to cause the problem and reminds you of all the times in the past you did the same thing That is likely how treating yourself People who make us feel good about ourselves and comfortable being ourselves are the ones we are most at ease with Start relating to yourself in the way a warm kind friend or family member would Changing the voice in your head to be more and nurturing will give you a bit of padding if you negative anxious thoughts kick in BECOME AWARE OF YOUR TALK How we speak to ourselves has a significant impact on anxiety Yet we let our anxious play out