The Shyness Workbook: Take Control of Social Anxiety Using Your Compassionate Mind

Description

There is nothing wrong with being shy - it is a natural emotion that everyone can experience. But if shyness is negatively impacting your life, The Shyness Workbook can help you grow your confidence. Shyness has evolved as an emotion over thousands of years and can be helpful in some circumstances. However, it can become a problem when it interferes with life goals, develops into social anxiety disorder or leads to 'learned pessimism', mild depression and even 'learned helplessness'. In this way, shyness and shame often hold us back from realising our potential and from engaging with others wholeheartedly. This practical self-help workbook sets out the background to shyness - its evolutionary functions and why it becomes chronic in some people - and teaches skills and exercises to help you overcome problematic shyness. Using this workbook, readers will learn how to: Cope with shy feelings and debunk anxious thoughts Develop self-compassion Practise new, confident behaviours Full of fresh insights and exercises, The Shyness Workbook will support your journey into developing social self-confidence. THE COMPASSIONATE MIND APPROACH The self-help books in this series are based on the Compassionate Mind Approach (developed by series editor Paul Gilbert). This brings together an understanding of how our mind can cause us difficulties but also provides us with a powerful solution in the shape of mindfulness and compassion. It teaches ways to stimulate the part of the brain connected with kindness, warmth, compassion and safeness, and to calm the part that makes us feel anxious, angry, sad or depressed.

Lynne Henderson is a licensed clinical psychologist with over forty years of experience. She founded the Social Fitness Center, and is founder and Co-Director, with Philip Zimbardo, of the Shyness Institute. She was a visiting scholar in the Psychology Department at Stanford University for thirteen years, a lecturer for five years, and a faculty member in Continuing Studies. Dr Henderson also served as a Consulting Associate Professor in Counseling Psychology for ten years. She directed the Shyness Clinic in Palo Alto for twenty-five years and conducted research and shyness groups at the Stanford Counseling Center. Her research interests include translating the results of social psychology and personality theory into clinical work, specifically, the negative stereotyping of shyness, the influence of personality variables and cultural influences on interpersonal perception and motivation, the leadership styles of shy leaders, and compassionate social fitness.

Exceptionally well written, organised and presented, The Shyness Workbook is an especially recommended tool for DIY self-help/self-improvement studies in general, and having to deal with moderate to severe shyness in particular * Midwest Book Review *