The skill you are trying to cultivate is good for things like lying, manipulation, and bluffing, but not particularly helpful for social anxiety. Lying and bluffing in social situations is an advanced level social skill, not beginner level. At the beginner level you just want to treat it like it’s a scary spider—gradually up your exposure until you feel comfortable.
Since you want an answer though—it’s a game, a play, an act. Purposefully pretending and taking on roles is more effective than attempting to lie to yourself.
I don’t think I can actually lie to myself on purpose about propositional statements, but emotions aren’t propositional statements, you don’t really have to lie to yourself to feel emotions that you wouldn’t normally feel.
Another thought: It helps to consider how certain things are true in a non-literal sense. It’s a different sort of truth, an emotional truth. “We all most fulfill our purposes in life, God will be happy if I finish my paper” isn’t literally true, but it’s true in the sense that the universe will be configured in a more favorable way if you do it, and you don’t have to think the complex, nuanced, and way-too-difficult-for-lower-primates-to-understand version every single time you consider it.
If you recognize that emotional truths often correspond to instrumental rationality at the end of the day, the same way Newton’s physics isn’t right but still works better, the part of your brain that yells at inconsistencies will quieten down.
The skill you are trying to cultivate is good for things like lying, manipulation, and bluffing, but not particularly helpful for social anxiety. Lying and bluffing in social situations is an advanced level social skill, not beginner level. At the beginner level you just want to treat it like it’s a scary spider—gradually up your exposure until you feel comfortable.
Since you want an answer though—it’s a game, a play, an act. Purposefully pretending and taking on roles is more effective than attempting to lie to yourself.
I don’t think I can actually lie to myself on purpose about propositional statements, but emotions aren’t propositional statements, you don’t really have to lie to yourself to feel emotions that you wouldn’t normally feel.
Another thought: It helps to consider how certain things are true in a non-literal sense. It’s a different sort of truth, an emotional truth. “We all most fulfill our purposes in life, God will be happy if I finish my paper” isn’t literally true, but it’s true in the sense that the universe will be configured in a more favorable way if you do it, and you don’t have to think the complex, nuanced, and way-too-difficult-for-lower-primates-to-understand version every single time you consider it.
If you recognize that emotional truths often correspond to instrumental rationality at the end of the day, the same way Newton’s physics isn’t right but still works better, the part of your brain that yells at inconsistencies will quieten down.