The bold and Bashful; third unit

                 This article was taken from a book, and  I want to share it with you guys.

     Tips for overcoming shyness:

This section presents a number of suggestions for overcoming shyness. Taken from a variety of sources (Carducci, 1999; Zimbardo, 1995; Cheek, 1989; Leary and Kowalski, 1995).

Start with self awareness: which shy type are you?

Because each person experiences his or her shyness in a unique way, the place to start when trying to overcome shyness is to gain some understanding of your won shyness. Begin by looking at what situations seem to make you feel shy, and why. For example, do you become shy when meeting new people, interacting at a social gathering, or speaking to someone to whom you find yourself attracted? Try to understand whether your shyness manifests itself cognitively (e.g. excessive self consciousness or deprecating statements), affectively (e.g. overriding feelings of anxiety), or behaviourally (e.g. failure to speak to others at social gatherings).

You might try to understand how these three different aspects of shyness might interact with each other in your experience of shyness. For example, consider the following situation where the affective and cognitive components of shyness interact to produce avoidant behaviour: you are at a party and assume others are evaluating you. As a result, you begin to experience feelings of intense anxiety, which makes it difficult for you to think of anything to say to others. Such lack of involvement in the ongoing conversation make you perceive yourself as socially incompetent and not very interesting. As a consequence, you leave the party. Since leaving the party reduces the feelings of anxiety, making you feel good, leaving becomes a strategy you are more likely to use in the future.

Thus, you can begin to overcome your shyness by examining the nature of your shyness.

Here are some phobias that people can experience:

• Agrophofia: An irrational fear of open spaces.

• Ailurophobia: An irrational fear of cats.

• Aviophobia: An irrational fear of flying.

• Acrophobia: Is an extreme or irrational fear of heights.

• Claustrophobia: Is the fear of having no escape and being closed in small spaces or rooms.

• Arachnophobia: Is a specific phobia, the fear of spiders and other arachnids.

• Technophobia: Is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers.

• Triskaidekaphobia: fear or a phobia concerning the number 13.

• Glossophobia: is the fear of public speaking or of speaking in general