How to be Yourself : Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety

Remember: genetics isn’t destiny. The brain, with its genetic programming and evolutionary shaping, influences behavior, but it goes both ways: behavior also influences the brain.

It’s almost impossible to retreat from the world and reemerge transformed, like a cocoon transforms a caterpillar into a butterfly. Instead, humans learn and change on the job. Put another way, rather than reading about how to ride a bicycle, we have to get on the bicycle. It is wobbly at first. We fall. But eventually our muscles and mind learn. And after that, we never forget.

A good therapist is like a good bra: they’ll both push you and support you into the best shape possible.