As a confident TV presenter, you wouldn’t think Gaby Roslin suffers from debilitating shyness, but she does, and urges for there to be more conversation around the trait.
During an appearance on the Second Act podcast, the presenter describes her life-long struggle with feeling shy, and how sobriety actually helped manage it.
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“I decided to give up alcohol eight years ago because I love walking, and I realised that if I had a hangover, I didn’t walk and I thought, ‘that’s stupid,'” she explains.
“So I stopped,” she adds, frankly. “I was lucky because I didn’t drink a lot. I’d have some wine on a Friday and Saturday night and that was it,” she shares, telling Ateh that she knows some people who’ve found it incredibly hard to stop drinking.
When Ateh suggests many drink because of shyness, Gaby describes how it had the surprisingly opposite effect.
“I wish I’d known all of those years ago how much less shy I’d be from not drinking,” she says. Gaby suggests that not drinking during events takes away the worry of what she’s going to drink, as she’ll always have fizzy water.
Knowing what she’s going to order, and not worrying she might drink too much and “say something awful,” leaves room to get the confidence to chat to people, with some of concerns alleviated that used to make her shyness worse.
“I can also leave when I want and drive home,” she adds, sharing some added bonuses of being alcohol free.
To inspire further confidence in others, Gaby urges everyone to smile as soon as they wake up in the morning.
After you’ve smiled to yourself, Gaby says, “Then walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror. When you look in the mirror, smile at yourself. Don’t think, ‘Oh, there’s a new wrinkle. Oh, there’s gray hair.'”
Then smile at yourself in the mirror again. “You’ll feel better, invigorated, and ready to cope,” she says.
