I was privledged to be invited to the quarterly meeting of a church's leadership. I'm just a participant so it was quite an honour. At times during the meeting, I was experiencing extreme anxiety, especially when the whole group was talking at once. Very triggering to me, but I managed to hold my ground and allow my feelings and the din to subside. I did have to stand up and introduce myself and felt an expectation to make some kind of witty comments given many others were eliciting laughter from the crowd. Perhaps the fact that I knew everyone at least by sight if not having actually talked to them made it more tolerable but I was very impressed with how well I was able to cope in a situation that normally makes me very uncomfortable.
