{"id":3072,"date":"2013-11-01T21:55:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T21:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oddrumblings.wordpress.com\/?p=3072"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:27:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:27:43","slug":"dealing-with-shy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/2013\/11\/dealing-with-shy\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with shy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I came across some advice from Mark Tyrrell about shyness that really resonated with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His point was that shy people are often very self-focused \u2013 not in a narcissistic way, but because they are constantly monitoring themselves. How am I coming across? What should I say? What are people thinking of me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suggestion was simple: stop trying so hard to be interesting, and instead be interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ask questions. Be curious. Let the other person talk. It gives the conversation somewhere to go and, more importantly, takes the spotlight off yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve been learning to manage my own shyness for years, and I think this is one of the most helpful ways to think about it. When the focus shifts away from self-scrutiny, it becomes easier to relax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And occasionally there is a lovely moment when you realise you\u2019ve been talking, sharing and connecting without analysing yourself at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A piece of advice about shyness stayed with me because it shifted the focus away from trying to perform well socially, and toward something much simpler: being genuinely interested in other people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hamjak.com\/ma2005\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}