I'm going Salsa dancing tomorrow night. I love it so much. The catch is that I'm going alone. It stinks to enter alone and sit alone waiting to dance. I was hoping to have someone go with me and even posted an invite to Maryland readers on this board if they wanted to go, but I thought it was creepy so I closed the thread. I'm going but I'm so nervous. I had to get it out of my head. That is all.

I'm inspired by reading that you are going salsa dancing, how fun is that!!

I am finally able to go to Panera by myself over the last few months and even that is stressful, anxiety-inducing stress. How weird is that?! Even I know it's weird but the feelings I get are so real. One of my goals is to conquer this fear. I don't even know why I have it, I just always have.

I really just think you are amazing to take the bull by the horns by putting your dancing shoes on and living and loving life. Have a great time and let us know how it goes!!!

Oh, I don't think it's creepy to ask people to dance! Good luck finding more dancers, and I think it's wonderful that you are salsaing! I took ballroom and Latin dance lessons in my 20s and it was a blast. I miss dancing! You're inspiring me...

Hey berkshiregirl I saw your message in the other thread. I'm actually going with my Salsa meetup group! It is always so much fun and the people are so nice. I just have to get up the initial courage to arrive and walk through the door alone. Once I'm in. I'm fine. Thanks!

Elvislover I know what you mean. I have this exercise I learned in my 20's. Back then I did it on paper as a reminder, now it is automatic.

Before going out write down the activity. Write your anxiety driven thoughts. Then write how much you think you will enjoy the activity on a scale of 1 to 10. After the activity, write your actual anxiety level (scale of 1to 10) and write about your actual experience.

For me the thought of the activity is always much worse than the results so now I push myself. Maybe one day I won't even have to think about it.

I went. I watched three dance troupe presentations. Great! I didn't get asked to dance and I was a little sad for about 30 seconds. I still stayed and watched. Met another woman and her friend who were equally surprised that they didn't have dance partners. We had fun talking. No problem.

When I left I felt that I had wasted my evening. Then I thought about where I would have been if I hadn't gone. I would have been sitting at home on the couch thinking about how I had wasted another Saturday. I'm glad I went and glad that I met some new people.

Since then I went out Salsa dancing last weekend and tonight I'm going out with another group to listen to an 80's cover band.

That is wonderful!!!! Good for you getting out there.

"I'm glad I went and glad that I met some new people." Yeay!

Sounds like LOTS of fun!!! Next time you should ask someone to dance if you wanna dance. Sometimes guys really hate walking up to a group of women to ask one ANYTHING on the chance of being turned down.

So glad you're having such a good time. I wanna try it!