Book excerpt: 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.