The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-10-25
Mrs. Wilson WOOdrOW'S Article
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW,
The world famous writer on vital subIects.

Why be bashful? A quarter at least
OF the letters | receive are from girls
and boys who are suffering from this
affliction and have failed in their eff
forts to over come It.
A dtffident girl has written me Of the
woes she endures from this psychology
lcal affection, which is just as much
OF q handicap as a physical difficulty.
am going on 20" she writes, land
nave suffered all my life from shyness,
am not naturally laxative, and IL !
DO say anything 1t Is sure to be wrong
Just what | ought not to have said. /
never seem able to express what
really feel or think. The pastor of our
church says that he has never seeh
anyone so bashful. You can readily see
how hard II Is for me to make friends.
am In all truth the village wall flower,
n | do get very lonesome. often
cry myself to sleep at night because
OF my inability to make or keep friends.
- have only one sister, a girl of 16,
We do not quarrel, but nevertheless we
are not companionable, She makes fun
or me, | think II | had more to occupy
my mind might be different. | want
some Kind Of a vocation. But what
shall II be?
81 am planning to go to the city this
winter and be with relatives, OF course
| shall have to work at anything | can
get until | learn some especial thing.
! think OF n number Of things | would
like TO do, and then ! change my mind
and don't want to do any OF them. Am
nclde, or what Is the matter with me?
] am SO discontinued and restless, and
feel that | Will never be happy, But |
must earn my own living, and would
IKE something with a future to II az |
shall never marry Wall flowers don't.
II realize that II win he impossible
for you to tell me exactly where my
talents lie, but | am hoping that you
may light the torch by which | may be
enabled to see more clearly
You are all at loose ends. raveled out.
so to speak, and need to knit yourself
up again.
Let us take up your difficulties In or
der, and first consider your bashfulness.
You sit down and write fluently to me-,
a stranger, but II you were to meet me
n try TO tell ms what you have put
into your letter, you would be awkward
and tongue-tted and would blush and
stammcr, and end by saying something
quite different from what you had in
tended. And all this not because there
would be anything grim and severe In
me, Heaven Forbid But because YOU
have h~ypnotized yourself into the belief
that that Is the way you always con-
duct yourself with strangers. The men
tai picture of yourself that YOU present
IN your letter Is the one you have held
In your mind so long that you can not
help impresstng 1t on others.
Now, how shall You unhYpnotize your
self? The process is simple. but since
you have spent years in regarding your
self as an exaggerated diftidcnt person.
II may take Il little time to sec your-
self In another light. Loosen our
clutch on that mournful photograph of
yourself and substitute another slide.
See yourself as gracious and easy in
manner, talking freely and agreeably
to anyone you meet, or to a whole
roomful Of strange people. The picture
is n veryf dim one, isn't Il, and quite
unreal, but " you continue to look a;
1t steadily and constantly, II will grow