Hi!
What I'm doing: I've told over 100 people (I guess) that I have "social phobia". So I'm telling people about it whenever I feel like. It's hard, but it gets you closer to people.
The other thing I'm doing is, when I have a problem making eye contact with someone (mostly everyone
), I say: "Look at me!". Then when they do, I tell them "Should I be afraid to look into your eyes?". This greatly diminishes the eye contact problem for me.
The third thing is, I'm going out as much as possible during weekends. I also have started inviting people to my place (have set a goal to invite people at least once per month).
Fourthly, I'm trying to talk to my parents weekly. Helps raise the mood.
Fifthly, I'm talking to, or trying to talk to, three different strangers per day.
Sixthly, trying to learn about the world (religions, global politics etc) to be able to talk to people about different things. Having interests and reading helps to find talking topics. I don't recommend wasting your time on computer games (as I did) etc, better educate yourself on topics you're interested in!
And finally, what helps the most, is to be as open to people as possible. As an acquintance of mine said, "Basically, you shouldn't be ashamed of anything."