Lucy’s Story: From Anxiety to Quiet Confidence with Gutsy
How one shy and anxious participant discovered playfulness, courage and self-trust through a Gutsy confidence course.
“I finished the course with a sense of quiet confidence.”
Playful, kind and curious – those are the words that sum up my experience of Gutsy.
I signed up because I’ve had social and general anxiety all my life. I find speaking off the cuff incredibly hard, especially at work. And there were a lot of things I was avoiding because of a lack of confidence or a worry of what could go wrong.
I wanted to feel more comfortable with not being in control, living more in the moment and to listen to more than just my fear and inner critic.
How did you feel when you first signed up for a Gutsy course?
I was nervous about trying something where I didn’t know what would happen and I worried about having to speak or perform on my own. I’ve done assertiveness training before and found myself in a room with seemingly thriving, confident people which made me feel worse and I feared this might happen again.
But I resonated so much with the personal stories Susannah was sharing, so I decided to give it a try.
Susannah is a very open, passionate and kind teacher who grew up shy, and knows so much about unlearning certain behaviours and leaning into the confident parts of me that I didn’t know I had.
“I encourage anyone who finds social interactions tough or struggles to find a confident inner voice to sign up for a Gutsy course or workshop. You’ll find people who you’ll relate to deeply and the kindest teacher who will give you all the tools you need to shine and lean into who you are.”
How was your experience of the programme?
The process really helped me tune into my inner voice and not get too lost in the anxious loops. I discovered that I can have lots of fun with the unexpected – even though it was the thing I was most worried about at the start!
I remember an exercise where I played a sea monster and it felt like a big shift in myself, because my fun and playful side seemed to overtake the big anxious voice, as I was just having so much fun.
I stopped comparing myself to the other participants too. They inspired me instead.
What’s changed for you?
The course gave me the confidence to apply for and get a job I wanted.
I used many of the techniques to prepare and calm my nerves for my interview and I even ended up enjoying my interview! I’ve always found the job application process terrifying but the Gutsy course helped to give me the self-trust to focus on the best I can do at each stage, and to trust that I know enough.
I finished the course with a sense of quiet confidence.
Lucy did a course very similar to Unleash (a slightly earlier iteration) – Gutsy’s 12-week course designed to help shy, socially anxious and quiet people build confidence, self-trust and ease in connection. If you’d like to explore how play, creativity, mutual support and gentle drama can help you show up more fully as yourself, Unleash might be for you.