You think everyone noticed the stain on your shirt. They’re all worried about the stain on theirs.

The attention you imagine pointed at you is mostly pointed inward, at whatever each person is privately embarrassed about. You are the main character of your own scrutiny and a background figure in everyone else’s. That is not a sad fact. It is a large amount of freedom you have been refusing to use.

Next time you are certain a room is judging you, look around and ask what each person there is probably worried about instead. Go to the thing you were going to skip. The audience you feared turns out to be busy being its own audience.