5 Tips to Help You Better Deal With Forced Social Interactions

Life is filled with unwanted interactions. Some of these interactions may lead to new relationships and other interactions may force us to drag our feet to get through it. No matter what, however, these interactions are necessary and unavoidable and we must learn to deal with them in order to get through life. To better help you understand how you can deal with these forced interactions and their outcomes, whether good or bad, here are five useful tips that you can use the next time you have to engage with individuals that are not already close to you but may be close to others who are.

1. Come Into the Situation With an Open Mind

We’ve all been there. Ugh, we think to ourselves, why did they have to bring their other friend or their significant other to this party or (list another event here)? To be even more honest, we have probably also been on the other side of that thought when someone invited us somewhere where we were the strangers to the rest of their friend group. Although this is a natural way of thinking and we are quick to judge, it’s best to approach all interactions with an open mind. How many times have you met someone to find that you actually liked them? How many times were you the stranger and how many relationships formed out of those situations? Keep these things in mind when you are forced to meet a new person.

2. Treat Them Respectfully and Make a Genuine Attempt to Connect With Them

Your friend’s friend is their friend for a reason, right? This means that this new individual has formed a connection with your friend and guess what, you already have something in common with this person: a connection with your friend as well! While this doesn’t guarantee that you and this new person will get along (you can’t always tell with friends of friends), you should take this as a sign to give that other person a chance as they may surprise you. Be respectful and make an attempt to connect with this person just to see if there may be a connection between you and them as well.

3. Don’t Make Them Feel Isolated, Promote Inclusion

Nothing is worse than going into a situation with a potential friend group, only to feel like the odd one out because you don’t know anyone and they would prefer to talk amongst themselves rather than include you in whatever conversation they are having or the activities that they are engaging in. If you are meeting a new person for the first person and you are in a larger group or with people besides the friend who invited the new person, make an attempt to include them in what you are doing so that they do not feel left out. This will help to make interacting with this person much easier as well!

4. Use Your Friend to Ease Into Conversation and Interaction

If you’re not outgoing, interacting with others can be hard enough as it is. If your friend brings a new friend somewhere or if you are the new friend, use your friend as a way to begin the connection and conversation between you and others. Once things have gotten going, you will then be able to keep up the conversation by yourself and can start learning more about the other people around you.

5. If There Is No Connection, Be Kind and Respectful for Your Friend’s Sake

No matter whether you are the new person or you are in the presence of a new person and you are not getting along with someone, bite your tongue and be kind for your friend’s sake. Unless the person is acting obnoxiously or inappropriately and something needs to be done, no rude words or remarks need to be made. You aren’t going to get along or connect with everyone you come across but you should always give them the respect that they deserve and the same respect that you expect to receive from them.

Meeting new people is no easy feat and this is made more difficult when there is a new person around you that you are forced to interact. If you find these types of situations challenging, use the five tips to better approach this situation the next time you are faced with it! Also, let me know how well these tips worked for you by leaving a comment below.