Ah, shyness. The bane of our social existence. Shyness, or social anxiety as the more serious cases are called, is usually all that is separating the smarter, brooding type of person from mingling with the more average, outgoing type. Here are some tips for somebody looking to cure their shyness:

1. It takes some free time:

No one can force you to be shy or talkative. Take a good, long, hard look at your life, and decide whether or not you're happy staying that way. If you see that you definitely need a change, check out your daily schedule. A common reason people become antisocial is that they just don't have time for social gatherings because they have a "busy" schedule, composed of video games and checking Facebook! If that sounds suspiciously like your daily life, try to wean yourself off those things so that you have more spare time.

2. Try some mental tricks:

Your brain is a complex thing, no doubt about it. Just like some people, it can respond to the oddest of things in the most normal way, and vice versa. It also needs lots and lots of practice to get good at activities (studies show the time it takes to master something is 10,000 hours!), like socializing. The latter leads to a bit of a Catch-22, where you need to practice schmoozing to do well but you can't practice until you do well; being afraid of the failure causes you to fail.

Fortunately, the former fact allows virtual practice to count towards that 10,000 hours, among other things. Simply imagining talking to someone in as much detail as possible allows your brain to make an imaginary road map of how the conversation might pan out, limiting the need for constant emotional pain. Yay!

There's another, odder method: Whenever you feel too nervous to do something, like talk to the hot girl at the bar, or something more general like high fiving somebody, simply imagine a sword floating in the air in front of you, hilt at your neck, and imagine (just imagine!) grabbing it as though you were Macbeth. This may or may not work, but it's worth a try.

3. Find a passion to talk about:

The easiest way to meet new friends is to find people with the same interests as you. You may feel as though you don't have any passions, but it's easy enough to find something that interests you even if you have no idea what that may be. Just keep doing whatever you're doing in your daily life until you run across something that gives you that special feeling inside, that almost butterfly feeling. When you do, you've found your passion.

Now that you have your passion, you need to find people with the same passion. Forums, Facebook, Twitter, going to conventions, it doesn't matter. Do try to keep it to people who live in your area, however, and don't act too crazy or perverted. Remember your imaginary practice!

Curing your shyness isn't hard; in fact, it can be rather easy if you have the right advice. I'm Taha Mirza, and I have a blog about the cure to shyness: http://cureforshyness.blogspot.com/. Over there I promote a unique product focused on curing your shyness, which comes with a bunch of cool bonuses. I'd recommend that you take a look.