How do you behave while being embarrassed?
By mimpi
@mimpi1911 (25464)
India
October 30, 2008 6:05am CST
When a cat falls off a wall it starts scratching its ear. Most animals perform this displacement behaviour when they get embarrassed. Humans have different ways to deal with embarrassment. Some gets red on face giving an obvious look of discomfit while others act smart by doing things that they do not do usually. Whatever it may be, we do get self-conscious.
How do you react when being embarrassed? Do you shy off or become too obvious or try to be smart or do your own stuffs?
Please share.
12 people like this
31 responses
@alokn99 (5717)
• India
30 Oct 08
Red faced and wanting to hide somewhere most definitely. The degree of embarassement of course varies depending on the situation.
When with friends they most certainly add salt to the situation. I would then try to come out of it by laughing it off or smart mouthing it.
If its in the office, then my head down a mild apology of sorts not knowing where to look. Would probably excuse myself and want to kick myself.
In a public place , then most likely the disappearing act.
I've been through a few Mimpi and just cannot forget them, maybe its because of the reactions that followed. Often wonder now if those actions were more embarassing or my behaviour that followed .
1 person likes this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
Disappearing act is most sensible but that we cannot do most of the times. And even if we can we are still left with the discomfit and consciousness. This happens to me all the time. I cannot let go and the the feeling of embarrassment stays with me for a long time. However, with time it becomes more fun to remember and share the stories of shames and shys.
2 people like this
@bjcyrix (6901)
• Philippines
30 Oct 08
Hi! I think I have three possible reactions when I get embarrassed. The first would be to just ignore it and pretend that nothing happened,especially when Im not in the mood or when Im upset about something. Then the second one would be to just smile and laugh about it. My last reaction would happen when I tripped or something that might incur a physical injury or something. When that happens I usually just check first if Im hurt or wounded. If my friends saw me and laughed after they know Im fine, I usually just laugh with them.
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
That's very sensible of you BJ. And I really appreciate laughing it out and ignore stuff is okay when among strangers. Why should we bother when we do not know others!
Smiles...
2 people like this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
1 Nov 08
What a nice punch line to start of the day with!!
1 person likes this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
Its just matter of thinking strongly Bala and you are right there....
1 person likes this
@MyLinnsLynn (292)
• United States
30 Oct 08
The first thing that happens is that my face turns as red as a beet. Then, I usually smile and laugh at myself. Sometimes being embarrassed makes me stumble over my words, especially if it was something that I'd said that had caused the embarrassment.
1 person likes this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
I know what you mean. Getting beet red is so very me and then laughing at myself - nothing like it. I feel, if we can laugh at ourselves and allow others to laugh at us, it makes situation very light.
Thanks for sharing.
1 person likes this
@kholid78 (341)
• Indonesia
30 Oct 08
Hi mimpi, this discussion give me a reason so here I can share what happened in me.
Someday I rode my vespa at more 70 km/h on a roadway between two large farm area.
Suddenly from the sugar cane farm theres tens of sheep passed by and cutting my way without any sign. And the accident was happened. I was jumped and rotated 3 times on the air. My fortune was landed exact at back of the last sheep.
Many farmer came for help. The stupid thing when I said with my loud laugh : Why you all come to me ? .... Some farmer walk away but theres awesome ones kept help so. The fortunately theres no fatal result in me and my vespa. I went home with my painfulness.
When I arrived at home, my 2 years old daughter said : Hey my dad walks like a robot. I said: I am not a robot, but an Alien.
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
That's great fun story! And I am glad that you didn't hurt yourself.
I wish I could be prsent there with the farmers and see you somersaulting and landing safe. Great moment to make you charged!
1 person likes this
@ediblecottoncandie (109)
• United States
30 Oct 08
My face starts to feel hot, and I shut down and stop talking. I might even walk away from the scene, lol. I see my cats always fall, or make short of a jump. Poor kitties, :p
1 person likes this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
Yes, that's displacement gestures in animals. You noticed it right.
1 person likes this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
4 Nov 08
i know what you mean. even i do that many times.
1 person likes this
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
31 Oct 08
I am not someone that seems to even GET embarrassed these days mimpi! I am not sure why but I don't recall the last time I felt this way. I have had incidents occure when I have slipped in front of people ro fallen off a bike and things like that but just kept on walking or laughed along with everyone else. I guess if these are cases of embarrassment then my way of dealing with them is through being humourous or nonchaklant about it all; although I honestly don't recall feeling embarrassed at all during any of these situations.
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
Good for you!
But what about your Vietman Trip, if I am not wrong? Do you remember anything funny, if not embarrassing? Trust me, a lot of these embarrassing moments get trivialised to fun on transfiguring after years. That's the best part of it.
1 person likes this
@dpk262006 (58678)
• Delhi, India
31 Oct 08
Yes, we all face the ackward feeling when we feel embarrassed. I am very shy, if anything like this happens to me, I would like to leave the scene as soon as possible. For example, one fine day, when I came to office the zip of my trousers got broken. It was not possible to close the opening. I had no choice, but to leave the office for home to change the dress, at the earliest. I was feeling very embrassed on that day and did not want that anybody should pay attention towards me and made me feel more embrassed, though one or two colleagues caught me evading their attention and I had to tell them the reason for leaving the office.
dpk
Have a great day!
How are you doing?
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
1 Nov 08
That's really embarrassing! And you are right our behavior and gestures make it so very obvious sometimes that even when we could have got away with it, we cannot.
Thanks for your nice response.
2 people like this
@dpk262006 (58678)
• Delhi, India
1 Nov 08
Yes, it becomes difficult to cover up our feelings, when we are in an embarassing position. Our sheepish looks reveal all our feelings.
Thanks for your kind words.
@pehpot (4762)
• Philippines
6 Nov 08
I never knew that is the reason why cats do that, but anyway when I am in a very embarrassing position my face turn tomato red. Even if I try to outsmart my embarrassment my face cannot deny the fact that I almost peed in my pants
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
6 Nov 08
That's so funny but trust me most of us go through that phase at some point in life!
1 person likes this
@xzg555898 (210)
• China
1 Nov 08
lol, you can guess what i will do when i am being embarrassed ..
just with a red face and discontinuousy words
it is normal,isn't it ?
i just can not control myself when i meet some special situation ,and i have tried hard to change this behave ,but it didn't work , i do not know how to change ,and i am still finding a useful way to change ,maybe someone can help me
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
4 Nov 08
hi!
how are you doing?
its hard to change. we cannot stop being beet faced, but we can learn to outgrow it. but i feel, a little amount of it is good.
1 person likes this
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
31 Oct 08
i usually start to talk to cover up my embarassment and i usually talk rubbish... especially after i make a mistake and i want to cover it up because i feel embarassed... then i will start to talk all sorts of things out of the blue just to distract my friends' attention from what i had done before... take care and have a nice day...
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
1 Nov 08
hahahaha
I know, i have friends who do that. we find it very funny and sweet.
1 person likes this
@I_LUV_U (2519)
• India
31 Oct 08
This is really interesting! I think everyone of us will have had such creepy, unforgettable moments of embarrassment in their life. I'm no exception. I really do get terribly self-conscious during such moments and strive to show up normal.
Generally, my instinct is to flee the place - if I possibly can. If it is not feasible, I will try to recover quickly and behave quite normal; besides, I make sure I don't display any emotions expressive of my vulnerability (which I know people watchfully await for) and most importantly don't seek for others' reaction to the situation.
@kenchiprincess (5296)
• Philippines
31 Oct 08
this is such a good question. at times we may not know how do we react whenever we get embarrassed. that would be the most common getting red all over your face. i would usually catch myself from reacting to much and act as if nothing happened at all... LOL.
@SaintAnne (5453)
• United States
31 Oct 08
I try to make light of what just happened most of the time. I make jokes and have others laugh WITH me and not AT me. But there have been times that embarrassment has gotten me flustered and red-faced that there was no saving myself.
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
31 Oct 08
That's so good to hear. trust me its not easy to invite others to laugh with you. I try to do that. That makes thing easier.
1 person likes this
@shine55555 (213)
• China
31 Oct 08
When I get embarrassed I will red on face feeling shy, but sometimes I will make a joke on me myself put the embarrassed moment behind. When I do so, people will be distracted from the embarrassed situation and focus on the joke I make. So people will treat me as a smart person instesd of keeping thinking how stupit I was.
Don not afraid of making joke yourself, people will like your joke.
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
1 Nov 08
That's a good way to deal with it! Very smart indeed!
1 person likes this