"Taking a Mindful Path Through Shyness" by Elisha Goldstein

TorLin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:19:19 GMT

Taking a Mindful Path Through Shyness
By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.: Sat, Nov 14th 2009 - 05:04:21 PM

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_i...p?idx=119&w=10

In our culture, shyness seems to be perceived as something of a deficit in character. Steve Flowers, author of The Mindful Path Through Shyness, explains that shyness can also be seen as a human temperament that can be regarded as positive, being modest, quiet, and demure.

However, he goes further to say:

"Some aspects of shyness aren't positive and create what I'll refer to as problematic shyness. These aspects include feelings of being unsafe in interpersonal relationships and feelings of social anxiety, which lead to protective behaviors."

So when shyness becomes a problem, people start looking inward for problems and become more self-critical and isolative. Eventually, this could lead to what's called Social Anxiety Disorder or a social phobia. What happens here is people become paralyzed with intense fear of being humiliated or embarrassed when in relationship to others. The reason this is called a disorder is because it causes so much distress that it greatly impairs someone's life toward feeling well.

However, make no mistake, shyness does not equate to a disorder.

However, these self critical stories we begin to identify with about our personalities, appearance and behavior are just that...stories. However, we consider them our identities, defining who we are. So we thoughts come in our minds that we are "weak" or "a loser," we really believe that is who we are.

Flowers says, "We all live in mental and emotional worlds that we essentially create and perpetuate with the habits of mind or stories that we tell ourselves. We tend to identify completely with the stories we repeat to ourselves and others and create afflictive mental and emotional states that bring much suffering into our lives. "

Mindfulness has the ability to observe these thoughts habitual patterns of the mind without getting caught up in them and without falling in the trap of berating yourself in the process. In doing this, you begin to come to terms with what is really true for you and expand the opportunity to choose where to invest your mental energy, rather than it being chosen for you.

http://www.youtube.com/v/PhwQvEGmF_I

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction here provides a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Participants needed in my online study

Bmoore87 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:10:40 GMT

Hey guys, I'm a college student doing a correlational study on Facebook use and social anxiety for my research class. I need as many participants as I can get. All responses given are confidential, and the survey only takes about 3 mins. to complete. Thank you very much!

http://www.stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?...-DD1177393F76&

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at bemoore@coastal.edu

studies on looks,personality, etc in sa people

stinky — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:08:20 GMT

so i'm new to this forum (hi) and am interested in doing a correlative study on perceived traits like looks, personality, intelligence, sociability. have linkages been done before with those variables in people with sa?

Social Anxiety Forum - Research Studies and Trials

"Taking a Mindful Path Through Shyness" by Elisha Goldstein

Participants needed in my online study

studies on looks,personality, etc in sa people