A bit that caught my eye in the second installment of the Cliff’s List Seminar Report:
“Shyness can often be mistaken for aloofness. A great way to get over shyness is to take stage theater classes.”
While I would indeed advocate the idea that folks should take acting classes . . . it would not to get over shyness. Rather, good acting classes can teach you a great deal about expression and voice, voice, voice. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in theatre and can tell you that most classes do not deal with stage fright or shyness beyond “get your butt on stage and do it” approaches. Most acting classes are designed for folks who are already engaged with the idea of getting on stage. They are geared towards folks who have already built coping strategies for their shyness, stage fright, or fears (a large number of professional actors are actually socially shy). While acting is a worthwhile skill to learn, there are some other things you might consider. One is improvisational comedy classes. This helps you learn to be in the moment and to be sponaneous. No canned speeches, just action-reaction in the moment. This translates into social conversational ability as well as enhanced creativity right away. With traditional acting – which I love – you will indeed learn some useful skills, but with improvisation training you incorporate those skills immediately into your social practice. In my opinion. Of course, one should also approach shyness in other ways . . . don’t assume that you can beat it down by forcing yourself to get past it. Recognize why you are shy and then what the gains are from that shyness and then use any of a number of trance processes or changework patterns to help come to terms with the positive outcome goals in a way that makes the undesirable behavior or trait no longer useful. I have posted on stage fright at Life of Brian as well as at Waking Dreams and some of the transformation techniques crossover.
All the best,
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.net
