In my novel, The Birdcatcher, remembering his time in school when he was a boy, Christopher Stone has this thought: Why can't we let shy children be shy? Why do we insist that they go into schools to be bewildered and bullied? Most of what I learned as a boy had come from books, from … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness and/or Autism | how one teacher and a lot of books rescued me
Good news for shy people | Work stress, you and your telomeres
Let's look again at Elizabeth H. Blackburn's 2017 book The Telomere Effect: a revolutionary approach to living younger, healthier, longer. Dr Blackburn is one of the leading researchers into the genetics of the telomere, that device at the ends of your DNA strands that protects them from deteriorating (often compared with the plasticized ends of … Continue reading Good news for shy people | Work stress, you and your telomeres
Psychology | Is anxiety natural? | Elaine Aaron and the Highly Sensitive Person
How, you may want to ask, can something considered pathological be natural?
Is this the Autism Highway?
From 2006 to 2016, I ran a website that I called Shy Highway. During that time I produced my second book, The Shyness Guide, then revised it, doubling it in size to what it is today. Along the way though, I got interested in autism. At first I tried to avoid the autism debate. It … Continue reading Is this the Autism Highway?
Shyness and Wolves | A new way of seeing ourselves?
In my book The Shyness Guide, I discuss The Pipestone Wolves, a book by animal behaviorist Gunter Bloch about a family of wolves that lived in Canada's Banff National Park. Bloch writes about the shyness that is common in wolves, and most wild animals. But he has a concept of shyness that is different. After … Continue reading Shyness and Wolves | A new way of seeing ourselves?
Rescuing Shyness | Resist the hostility of the social world
Nothing about shyness bothers non-shy people more than the reluctance of shy people to talk. "What's the matter with you? Speak up! Be assertive! Stop hiding from us!" - that's their common refrain in workplaces, at school, etc. Why are social people like that? I think it starts with their instinctual need for communication. Never … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness | Resist the hostility of the social world
How to be Less Shy by being More Shy
What do I mean by this? It's simple really - instead of trying to suppress your shyness (what the social world has been urging you to do all your life), the best thing to do is to accept it – accept who you are. But that doesn't mean giving up and hiding at home. You … Continue reading How to be Less Shy by being More Shy
Why did I write The Shyness Guide?
Why did I write another book about shyness when there are over 600 books about it published already? How could there be anything left to say? Well, because shyness is almost never understood the way I understand it. From the day I entered kindergarten I was acutely aware of how different I was. In my … Continue reading Why did I write The Shyness Guide?
Alternative World |New perspectives on autism, shyness, literature and history, psychology and science, life, the universe and everything
Yes, this is the new title of this site. Though I'm still fond of 'Shy Highway', the title I've used since 2007, my interests obviously are too far-ranging. Since I was a boy entering school, my view of the world around me has been different from that of anyone I've met. That wasn't always positive. … Continue reading Alternative World |New perspectives on autism, shyness, literature and history, psychology and science, life, the universe and everything
