Poise and Tiredness,

[PENNY]

HI Penny here,

I have got into the habit of having a very bad Poise
for some months now.
I have my Head down, Shoulders up, like I'm trying to
protect myself from something.

I look in the mirror and do not like what
I see there, this has caused me to feel very
depressed for some months now.

I now seem to be getting very tired in the day, will often
nod in the chair for about 30 minuites.

Think this is the Depression that I have now.

I do not like the way that I look, I look like some person with
a Mental Illness, instead of a General Anxiety Disorder.

Those who know me will know that I do not take Medication,
I believe in Self Help for most things.

So, how do I help myself to improve the Poise, so that
I can feel Confident and Proud of myself, Ideas will
be very welcome.

Is there any one else here that has this Poise Problem ?

Kindest Regards,
PENNY,

PENNY,

[kt]

Hi Penny,
I have a really bad poise too. I am constantly trying to keep my shoulders down and my head up, also get really bad tension headaches from it. I used to have a huge energy slump at around 3pm every day. I felt as tho i could just sleep wherever i was. That included at my desk at work. I would come home from work so tired that it would be a huge effort just to take my coat off! I have tried to be concious of the amount of sugar i consume during the day and have found that by cutting this out it has helped a lot. I don't know if this has helped you at all, but I do know how this feels.
Good luck, KT

Be gentle and you will need no strength, be patient and you will achieve all things.

[nomorepanic]

Penny

Can you manage to do some yoga or even better Pilates.

Personally I didn't like Pilates but it is all about body posture and how to stand/sit/walk correctly so it may help you in that respect.

I slump over a laptop all night on here so I am sure my poise is not brilliant either.

Is it just your poise that you don't like the look of or are there other things too?

Nicola

[stimpy]

The best thing I can suggest is relaxation.
It is one of the best self help things you can do.
It can take a lot of practice, but once you've got it sussed it works.

Try practising sitting up straight, just for a few minutes everyday.

Tiredness is a common symptom of anxiety as you burn up more energy than you realise.

A lot of people suffer from low self esteme during these difficult times.
The good news is, it will get better but it takes time.

Love, light and Best wishes
Liz xxx
With hard work and determination and all the things you know.
The world is there for you to take. There's nowhere you can't go.


[]Scatty Eccentric & 'Poet Laureate to panic and anxiety'

[silentcalligraph]

I'd suggest Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong - all will help you become more aware of your poise and posture in general. These are all exercisis for body-awareness and after a while you'll become more attentive to what's going on especially when you're under stress. I've figured that the 'home' of panic lies right between my shoulder-blades, the 'home' of tension headaches is a bit up more towards the neck. Once you've gathered some experience you'll be able to notice those things as well and you'll be able to react accordingly and relax the strained areas.

One word about posture - all those Asian exercise-systems have a different ideal of the ideal posture than the one normally promoted in the West (tummy in - shoulders back with the spine bent in an S-curve): Shoulders relaxed (no slouching) and the spine not bent but as straight as possible without forcing it.

If you don't feel comfortable with all the philosophy that comes along with those Asian exercise-systems you could try western-based systems for relaxation and general body-awareness like Feldenkrais and Alexander technique. I have no personal experience with those two but I most say that picking up Qi Gong was one of the best things I've done for myself during the last couple of years - it doesn't matter what you chose in the end, be it yoga or Feldenkrais - you have to feel comfortable with your choice. Improving your body-awareness can bring a lot of relief if you suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. I know this sounds a bit weird since most of us feel like we're concentrating too hard on our bodies. Point is we're doing it the wrong way

http://www.feldenkrais.co.uk/index.html
http://www.stat.org.uk/

[mico]

Hi Penny

I would suggest something like yoga too. These kinds of problems usually come about through tightness in the muscles. This means that it may take a bit of work to correct. You're going to have to stretch these muscles, and unfortuanately it takes time, but worth it in the end. Pilates, although I don't know a great deal about so feel free to correct me, I believe won't have a great impact if you haven't got the flexibility to stand straight in the first place. Flexibility comes first. But once you begin to become more flexible, then you can concentrate on standin up straight. You can start this over short periods of time, maybe ten minutes a day, then gradually build it up until you're standing correctly doing certain activities and so on until you eventually find yourself standin correctly all the time. If it causes you any problems, say, physical discomfort or depression, then it may be worthwhile to go to the doctors. They may be able to put you in touch with a specialist who can help you get back to a healthy posture. Although, you may have to go privately for something like that.

As the others have said though, relaxation is quite important in self help, and should have a positive effect on your posture too as you become more relaxed. Again, yoga will help in this area.

If you go to a yoga class, they may well be able to guide you with the best exercises for this. But if you do it at home, it may be worthwhile having a search in google or purchasing a good book on the subject. In which case you can find out what muscles are affected and what exercises will be most effective for you.

I would really encourage you to do it though, it can't do anything but make you feel better, and that's got to be good enough reason to do it.


mico

[PENNY]

HI There,

Thank you for all your replys.

I must really try to do the Relaxation every day and the special
exercises. the thing is, when we feel Depressed we tend to
feel sorry for our selves and really we should be working
towards our Recovery.

Will let you now how I get on.

Love Penny,

PENNY,

[mico]

Hi Penny

I know what you mean when you say 'feeling sorry for yourself', I guess that's the thing that often stops us from doing the things that we 'should' be doing. I should probably be doing this stuff right now, but I'm not. If you can make the break though and get into a habit of doing these things with a positive attitude, giving yourself some goals to approach (don't have to be too big) then it will help to lift any depression. It's all vicious circles, but if you can break the pattern, then you're on your way to recovery.

mico