Attack of the Awks

I stumble into them, the ultimate hipster couple. He's a legendary DJ and she does super cool live visuals for his shows.

He is already looking at me VERY strangely as I’m shaking his girlfriend's hand - awestruck. I'm shaking her hand and shaking her hand and still shaking her hand. Some words are going to and fro, ‘How are you?’, ‘How is the music going?’ and I’m still shaking her hand. I’m starting to feel really awkward and uncomfortable, but I JUST CAN’T LET GO.

ARRGGGGGHHHH!

As I’m standing there in their aura of infinite coolness, I’m STILL holding onto her hand. So PANICKING, I look around for my friend. I spot her, only to find that she is howling with laughter. She's doubled over, holding her stomach, half crying with laughter.

Thankfully this * snaps * me out of it. I mumble a few words and FINALLY let go of her hand.

And so I survived The Attack of the Awks.

The moral of the story is we're all awkward. We all say and do goofy stuff. But, we don't have to walk though the world believing we should have done better, self-shaming and being hard on ourselves.

In my work with clients, I find us deeply self-critical and unforgiving of ourselves, over things we would accept easily in other people.

The aim of this work is to be able to show up as ourselves. Feeling confident and safe to express no matter whether • the person in front of us is oozing coolness • or it’s a large group of people • or we need to sing or deliver something really important • or when we're nervous to say something important to the ones we love.

Let's celebrate the awkward teenager that lives inside us all!