[phito]

Just like other said, exposure. Working helped me the most as it forced me to interact with people, and helped me gained confidence because I was good at my job.

Mindfulness also allows you to analyze your anxiety and over time you will realise that your thoughts just aren't right most of the time, you can and should ignore them. Meditation helps training mindfulness (doesn't even need to be done regularly in my experience).

If you can't do these by yourself, seek help from a therapist. CBT is said to work although I have no experience with it.

Social anxiety robbed me from more than 10 years of my life, but now that it's (almost) gone, I feel so free. Best of luck to everyone suffering from it, it does get better.

[gperkins978]

I strongly support this. I also joined a debate/discussion group. It was a Christian thing, so I did not advertise my Buddhism, and the bible is not all that different than other odd old book, but once I could speak in front of eight people, speaking in front of fifty was not so hard. Also, make an effort to look at people's faces. This makes you seem less awkward.