…”Well yes probably and it’s most definitely taken a lot less than the naked form of Rose Dewitt Bukater”
When you feel embarrassed your body releases adrenalin as it gets ready for the natural fight or flight response. The redness that appears on your cheeks is due to the veins under your skin dilating, allowing more blood to flow through them. This is all very interesting sciencey stuff but the question is why?
What purpose does blushing serve other than embarrassing us further? Well unfortunately I don’t know because it still baffles the boffins.
I flush red at inappropriate moments and I don’t mean the situation is inappropriate. I can be having a conversation with a group of people that I’ve been conversing with for some time and suddenly I’m as red as a beetroot. This doesn’t mean that I’ve said something embarrassing or you’ve said something naughty or rude (which is usually the case for causing someone to be hot and bothered) it just means my brain has decided to be a complete t**t again and make me look stupid.
Okay sometimes it is because I’ve said something embarrassing or you’ve said something that I’m a bit prudish about, when in actual fact I’m not prudish at all but I think parts of my brain are managed by an old spinster maid who lost the key to her chastity belt many moons ago…
Contrary to popular belief I don’t like it when the attention is on me. Especially when I’m “caught out” with a…
“So Kate, what’ve you been up to”
I know, it’s a perfectly acceptable question but my brain doesn’t know what to say. There’s no script!
I think part of the problem in that situation is that I’m afraid to big myself up so I just say,
“Not much”
When actually I may well have just scaled Everest… Okay maybe not yet but one day.
I then go in to panic mode and try to steer the conversation away from me but the person is still looking at me for an answer and I can tell you, they ain’t getting one. Not because I’m rude and don’t want to talk to them, I’m just awkward and I don’t know what to say.
I’ve gone a little off piste here, talking about myself yet again! Although this is my blog so I can talk about myself all I like 🙂
But! I imagine that my flushing red for no reason other than being spoken to is down to my anxiety and I can tell you it’s not nice. It’s especially not nice when someone then yells,
“Look Kate’s going red“
I can tell you right now, you’re a w****r, a big giant f***ing w****r.
I don’t just randomly shout out,
“Hey look everyone *generic name* is really ugly“
(Although I do sometimes say stupid, horrible things as a knee-jerk response. I might even hit you.)
I have no control over my face going red, you have no control over being ugly.
Another really shitty thing to do when someone is obviously finding a situation difficult, is to stare at them. You’re staring because you’ve noticed that their cheeks have flushed slightly red because they may well have found themselves to be having a difficult time.
Well I’m not here to entertain you (unless I’m on stage and you’ve bought a ticket) and if you find my misfortune funny even for a second I will never, ever forgive you.
I have been bullied and belittled in front of people before and even though this is not the same it still brings all of the same feelings to the surface for me. I know this isn’t your problem and I certainly don’t want to never talk to people again as that would just be impossible and stupid.
Blushing is involuntary, you can’t control it. You don’t know when it’s going to happen and it can happen for no reason. I have often been having a conversation with someone and it just happens for no reason, I could have been talking to them for 20 minutes about nothing in particular then suddenly I’m bright red and my body is on fire. It usually passes pretty quickly and I do try to just ignore it and as long as we don’t have a giant joker in the room who finds it hilarious then it’s really not a big deal.
You’re technically being embarrassed about being embarrassed and it’s exacerbated by the reactions of others. All I ask is that if or when you see this happening to a friend or even a stranger don’t point and laugh, if you’re the sort of person that can steal attention fairly quickly, do it. I’ve been saved many times by wonderful people who may or not have seen my predicament and have jumped in with anything to deflect the attention.
I would even happily welcome a rugby tackle, I would rather be rugby tackled to the ground or scooped up in to giant bear hug than to have to stand there whilst my face goes redder than a telephone box. I’m not even joking.
So you know what to do! I don’t advise this for other people, they might not take to the rugby tackle as well I would…
Just seriously though, don’t be a complete f**kwit. The world would be a better place if there were less f**kwits.
I do apologise for the profanities in this post, I may have been slightly vexed at the time of writing 🙂 Or had too much sugar…
Don’t ever let anyone make you think you’re not good enough.
Follow your dreams right now! Don’t wait until tomorrow,
next week, next year. Stop planning, start doing 🙂
Be happy and keep smiling 😀
Made A Hames 