[mettamage]

You don’t think yourself in another emotional state, you act yourself into one (act as in you do stuff not act as in acting like an actor).

This is what I found combatting my social anxiety by approaching people on the street. Even after a decade of doing it, I am still as socially anxious as ever but simply giving some genuine compliments to a few fellow pedestrians loosens me up after half an hour (in Europe).