Self Help & Personal Growth

How To Overcome Shyness

In this article, the author shares his experience learning how to overcome shyness ...

Some people want to find out how to overcome shyness. As a shy person I can attest that it isn’t easy but it can be done. Being shy can be painful especially if it keeps you from doing things that you want to do. I know that I have missed many events and I have missed out on many relationships just because I didn’t know how to overcome shyness.

The problem is that I tend to think that I am very different from other people. There is an overwhelming fear that others will not understand or like me for who I am. You can’t really learn how to overcome shyness if you keep yourself distant from others. Thinking that you are different than other people is typically a misconception.

A counselor at my high school took some time to help me learn how to overcome shyness. He knew that I had a severe lack of social skills when dealing with new people but he didn’t know how painfully shy I was until one of my teachers called my mother to ask her if I were mute. In the three weeks that I was in the class I never uttered one single word.

I really couldn’t help it. I didn’t know how to overcome shyness and the teacher was very intimidating. He also gave me a seat in the very front row in the middle of the room. I felt like a target in this position. There was something uncomfortable about the seat and the fact that I had never spoken to any one of the four students surrounding me didn’t help things either.

The high school counselor set a meeting with me during my study hall period of the day. I was thrilled to get out of that class because students tended to focus on each other since there was really nothing else to take their attention. Few of us used the time to actually do homework.

The counselor immediately gave me a piece of advice on how to overcome shyness that I still remember to this very day. He suggested that I consider all of the nervousness I was feeling. He suggested that I think about how much I wanted to interact with other people and the fear of being rejected.

After I focused on the factors that make being shy so painful he added one more suggestion. He told me to turn those feelings around and acknowledge that everyone else feels that way at one time or another, too. I’m still a little shy but this advice has helped me learn how to overcome shyness.

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