30 Extremely Embarrassing Things These Internet Users Told People They Wanted To Impress

Dr. Bonior told Bored Panda that in situations when someone is constantly tormented by memories when they embarrassed themselves, it's important to think about reframing the narrative.

"Did the situation teach you something? Did it make you stronger? Did it give you added understanding or empathy for other people? In general, we often over-focus on ourselves and assume that people are still thinking about something embarrassing we did when in reality they are thinking about something embarrassing they did!" she told us via email.

"So ask yourself realistically, why would this be something that other people even care about? And even if they did, how is thinking about it now helping me? You can use some techniques borrowed from meditation where you visualize the embarrassing situation as a cloud that, as you breathe slowly, dissipates, or as a leaf that gradually floats away on a stream," she advised.

Meanwhile, the author of 'Detox Your Thoughts' noted that a good rule of thumb for when to seek professional help is to look at whether the embarrassing memories people remember get in the way of their daily life and functioning.

"For instance, if it is really disrupting your sleep a lot over time, or it's keeping you from wanting to socialize, or it's bringing down your mood so much that you can't concentrate, those are all examples of how your daily life is suffering," Dr. Bonior told Bored Panda.

"But also too, I'm a big fan of therapy just for gaining insight into a situation. There might be a problematic pattern with your thinking that needs to be explored further, even if the distress that's being caused isn't completely disruptive. Getting help could still go a long way toward improving your life."

Harvard Business Review points out that embarrassment can work in your favor because it shows the people around you that you’re just like them—human. So long as we don’t make a big deal about our mess-up, things should be fine.

“You’d be surprised by how compassionate and nonjudgmental your audience is. Everyone wants a leader who shows their human side. Your humility is what will make you relatable,” Lan Nguyen Chaplin writes.

Psych Central suggests practicing self-compassion or laughing things off to work through an embarrassing moment. Other things that help are common sense approaches like apologizing and owning up to your mistake. Doing some deep breathing also helps to stay calm, in the moment.

But if you feel like you’re still obsessing over your mistake, it can help to vent to your friends or to seek a therapist’s help. They might give you a different perspective that’ll help you move forward.

The most important thing when it comes to an embarrassing situation is to come to terms with what happened. The last thing you need is for it to turn into a deep-seated sense of shame that will follow you everywhere—making you facepalm and cringe in the shower, on your commute, and when trying to sleep at night. In short, you really don’t want that.

No matter how much of a fool you think you’ve made of yourself, there are two things to remember. First of all, everyone makes mistakes. Literally everyone! Even those seemingly ‘perfect’ social media stars you follow online don’t have it all figured out. Messing up and learning from our mistakes is a universal experience, no matter someone’s background or circumstances.

Secondly, well, not to sound too critical, but the world doesn’t revolve around you, nor us. What might have been the embarrassment of a lifetime for us may have simply been a witty moment for someone else… if they noticed it in the first place. Odds are that everyone’s far too obsessed with thinking about how others perceive them to nitpick our mistakes.

Do people judge others? Yes, obviously, all the time. However, they probably don’t hold your mistakes against you as much as you punish yourself by going over the same memories over and over and over again. We are, usually, our own harshest critics.