Greetings everyone!
 I read The Dark Side of the Light Chasers a while back and am now reading it again (more carefully and also really doing the exercises this time) and am finding it to be really helpful.
My main reason for reading it is that I very easily find people to be extremely annoying. When I am around people- including family members and friends that I love to total strangers, I quickly pick out things that they do (noises they make, how they act) and think “that is so annoying” and from then on, it just drives me crazy because I am totally focused on these things!!! It is sometimes all I can think about when I am around them. I am thinking “why do they do that, I would never do that or be that annoying!” or "dont they know that that is annoying and drives people crazy."
I have been struggling with this for some time now, and, honestly, my over-sensitivity to these things and my inability to make them into sort of "background noise" makes me feel like a very strange person and has been the cause of problems in multiple relationships. The good news is that for the first time ever (after meditation, lots of doctors, and meds) I finally feel like I might be on the right path to real help with this book and these shadow exercises.
If any of you have had similar feelings to these-I hope I am not the only one, I would love to hear back from you on 1) what causes these feelings in you, 2) how you dealt with them, and 3) how you used this book or maybe a workshop to overcome these feelings. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Best wishes for a happy new year and a healthy 2008 and beyond!

Hi John, maybe you've gotten this sorted out by now :-) or working on it on an ongoing basis as we all do.
Perhaps the point is that those annoying things are really trying to get your attention so that you can stop and think "hmmm where in life am I doing a similar thing?  The moment that you can acknowledge that, given a set of contributing circumstances, you too are capable of acting in such a way - like "owning up" to the fact that you do actually have that capability, is the moment that you can see the wonderful light side of your own.  Look at it this way, if you are capable of being so critical - you are also capable of being just as un-critical and accepting.  That's what your annoyance is trying to show you - not the faults of other people but your own great capactity for acceptance and tolerance! Why don't you start forgiving yourself for being critical and acting out your shadow side, and start accepting and acting out your tolerant un-critical side :-)