As you may have seen yesterday, March is the month of Magic on the Go here at GeniiOnline, but you may be wondering what the heck it is. Ok, it’s a service that gives you access to a bunch of videos and suchlike, but surely that’s only useful if your aim is to perform magic professionally, right? Well, no.

According to the Social Anxiety Institute, about 14% of the population will suffer from social anxiety at some point in their life. “Social anxiety” broadly refers to feeling emotional distress when confronted with ordinary social situations like being introduced to other people, being watched while doing something like giving a presentation, social encounters like parties, or dealing with someone in authority – in a job interview, for example. 

It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do card tricks while you’re trying to get a job, but learning magic can be a way to help ease into social situations that might otherwise prove immensely stressful. Success in those scenarios can build confidence for other social environments. 

Speaking as someone who never quite mastered the art of “networking,” I wish someone had tipped me off years ago that learning a few tricks was a great way of sliding into conversations without feeling like an enormous doofus. Once I master the color change, I will be set.