If you don’t make eye contact with people, you are presenting yourself in a poor light. Not making eye contact suggests that you are shy or shifty, neither of which are attractive qualities. So how do you learn to make eye contact confidently and easily?

As with anything else, you learn to make eye contact easily through experience! One of the ways you can do this is while shopping. It’s quite easy to have something to say when you’re out shopping; you can ask the way to somewhere, or for somebody’s opinion of a product, for example. You only need to talk to the person you are making eye contact with if they approach you, so there’s no need to use it unnecessarily. Make eye contact with some strangers of the opposite sex, holding it for several seconds.

You can also try this approach in other situations. Just make sure that you have something to say if the person approaches you, that would explain why you were looking at them.

It’s best not to think of dating while practicing this technique, because that is likely to make you fearful of the situation, and you will probably avoid eye contact. Dating can come later, and will probably be the subject of a later article that I will write.

Now, here’s how you can cheat! Eye contact is difficult to establish and maintain for periods of several seconds; it instills fear in you and the stranger. If you start off by looking at the bridge of the nose instead, you will experience much less fear! You may even be able to do this instead of making eye contact while dating. You can then let the skill develop at a slower pace if you wish.

Remember, when you are actually talking to someone, making eye contact gets easier and becomes the natural thing to do, so the skill shouldn’t take you too long to master, and you should eventually find doing it while dating much easier than doing it to complete strangers!