I'm way too shy, please help
pasbesoin: Exercise.  Heavily.The best time of my life was the fall after a summer of cycling every day.  I gained several (real) new friends.  I started participating in intra-mural sports, at which I was actually good.  (Some quite negative "jock attitudes" had kept me away from organized sports in primary and secondary school.)  I reconsidered my education and began to see past all the "don't do that" advice towards a course of pursuing what actually interested me.There's a lot more to this, especially as researchers look at and measure various biological changes and effects, than just a one liner.  But to summarize:  When you feel better, you feel better about yourself, and, feeling better about yourself, you approach others on a more equal footing.I was cycling 2 - 3 hours a day.  It may not require this much activity, but I am talking about more than a 15 or 30 minute workout.  (Well, maybe a heavy 30 minute routine would suffice.  Others might have more to contribute in the way of details.)P.S.  I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall some good threads on this (both shyness and exercise, and the union of the two topics) back in the "early days" of HN.  Unfortunately, I don't have references at hand, but a look throughhttp://searchyc.com/http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archivemight turn some up.