Last night I woke up at 2am to the sound of the alarm on my wife's oxygen machine announcing that it had just failed. She can't live without oxygen. I got up quickly, filled an emergency portable tank for her [liquid oxygen for those who know about such things], then spent half an hour trying … Continue reading The return of Skol
Where did insensitive people come from?
In my book The Shyness Guide I discuss psychologist Elaine Aron's concept of the "highly sensitive person". She came to the conclusion that that her HSP diagnosis was necessary because of the profound difference in the sensitivity of people. There is a sensitive/insensitive divide in us. Dr Aaron would caution me to say – ‘more … Continue reading Where did insensitive people come from?
Rescuing Shyness|C. S. Lewis
When Clive Staples Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia, etc) was a boy and was sent away to a public boarding school, he was miserable because he was acutely shy. Eventually realizing that Clive was too shy for such a place, his father took him out and sent him to live in the country … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness|C. S. Lewis
Shyness |Accept yourself, but don’t expect them to accept you
My book The Shyness Guide basically does three things: It presents the evidence that shyness is natural It tries to convince you to accept yourself as a shy person It shows how you can function in the social world in a shy way, rather than in the outgoing way that is constantly urged on you. … Continue reading Shyness |Accept yourself, but don’t expect them to accept you
Shyness| Learning to live in the Delusion
In my my novel The Birdcatcher, I introduced the idea of the modern social world as a great delusion. The point I was trying to make is that the world you experience in school, workplaces, group relationships, etc, is not simply something that doesn't match up with the wary sensitivity you acquired from a million … Continue reading Shyness| Learning to live in the Delusion
Why did I write The Shyness Guide?
When there are more than 600 books about shyness for sale on Amazon, you might wonder why I wrote another one. How could there be anything left to say? Well, because shyness is almost never understood the way I understand it. My central idea is that shyness is natural in most shy people. It's part … Continue reading Why did I write The Shyness Guide?
Shyness and your Telomeres
Recently I read Elizabeth H. Blackburn's 2017 book The Telomere Effect: a revolutionary approach to living younger, healthier, longer. Throughout it, I couldn't help thinking how relevant this is to shy people. Dr Blackburn is one of the leading researchers into the genetics of the telomere, that device at the ends of your DNA strands … Continue reading Shyness and your Telomeres
Sorry – I’m returning to the 23rd century|My book Skol is on hold till I get back
Thinking this week about how my book Skol has had almost no sales, it occurred to me that I might turn that into something positive. For since I first published the book, I have noticed a few things I would like to change. Why not go back and change them? As soon as I had … Continue reading Sorry – I’m returning to the 23rd century|My book Skol is on hold till I get back
The Shyness Guide ebook restored
When I did a recent free release of the new Shyness Guide ebook recently, I discovered to my dismay that all versions of it - kindle, tablet and phone - had an excess of space between paragraphs. I apologize again to anyone who downloaded it that way. This was my fault, not Kindle Direct Publishing … Continue reading The Shyness Guide ebook restored
