How to cure a shy cat

I uphold my cat-loving reputation not only to my friends, but to my family as well.
For any cat-related questions they think of, I am the first person they come to.
The one that I am asked the most is how to bring a shy cat out of its shell to be more social.
This was also something I struggled to figure out, because I had a shy cat of my own that I desperately wanted, for her sake, to come out of her shell.
Before I begin, please remember these points:
First of all, the stereotype is true — female cats are more shy than male cats. Therefore, it will be harder to break a female cat out of her shy ways. Difficult, not impossible.
Second of all, kittens learn most traits and behaviors between the ages of 4 and 20 weeks old. That means that an older cat is more set in his or her ways. Again, it will be difficult to make the older kitty more social, but not impossible.
Lastly, cats can undergo traumatic experiences and will carry it with them throughout their lives (just like humans... Think about post traumatic stress disorder...) Therefore, some cats will never be fully trusting of humans and forcing yourself onto the cat will only make it worse.
So, how do you do it? Remember, (Communication majors...) 93 percent of communication is nonverbal communication. Cats may not be able to understand what exactly we are saying, but they can sense moods and traits of humans better than we can. Therefore, it's important to display welcoming, loving body language to a shy cat.
Use a nice tone, look at it with loving eyes, get down to the cat's level, open up your hands and let it come to you first. Don't move closer to the cat. Let the cat move closer to you or else it will run!
Don't try to force or chase the cat into coming to you.
Do this on a normal basis until the cat gets used to you, then when the cat trusts you enough to let you hold it, don't force it! If kitty wants down, let kitty down!
But if not, put an honest effort in to make the cat love and trust you. Seriously try to bond with the cat and build that essential trust.
Use a calm tone, pet the cat gently and think loving thoughts. Eventually it will want down, but if you do this on a normal basis, the cat will start coming to you.
In addition, it's important to have a set-in-stone feeding schedule for the cat and don't miss any times!
The cat will be used to getting fed at that time and will trust that you will put its food out.
Read my previous post about how to talk to your cat to get a sense of whether the kitty is coming around or not.
And remember, some strays carry diseases and it's a bad idea to try to get the cat to come to you or let it into your home. Not all strays, but some.
Sometimes it's not worth the risk to try to bring a stray into your home. But if you still feel the need to take care of it, put some food out. If you're a food source the stray cat can trust, the cat is sure to be back.