Thursday, November 20, 2008

Conservation of Motion

I know what one of the problems is with getting everything done. It's the way I feel. I don't just mean my feelings, I mean my body. I often have this strange feeling that I need to keep my body to myself. Like... close. As in closely together. And yes, I'm aware that I am doing a poor job of explaining. I've never heard anyone talk about this before and I have never tried to describe it, so that's why. I guess I should give an example. When I go to do something, I often get this feeling that I should not 'put myself out there'. Like I don't want my arms to be too far away from the rest of my body. Like I feel the need to keep them in and not reach away from myself. It's like that with my legs sometimes, too, but it's different. Like when I sit near other people and I feel the need to make sure I don't stretch my legs out and let my feet be too far away from me. I felt like that Wednesday. I did things, but not as much as I wanted. Peak energy never really showed up. And I had that feeling when I would even reach out to do something. The feeling that I wanted to keep my arms close to my body. I wonder if it had anything to do with sleeping. Happily, I slept quite well and it was rough to get up out of bed. Plus, it's cold outside. That makes me want to curl up somewhere warm and stay there. That is the feeling of needing to keep my body close in. But I don't have to be sleepy and it doesn't have to be cold for me to feel like that. I have tried to approach this with the 'just do it' attitude, but it doesn't usually work and that approach takes a toll. It makes me feel really bad. Almost like crying. And there seems to be no long term benefit to forcing things. It doesn't make it any easier the next time. If anything, it tires me out emotionally and makes me sort of need to curl in on myself all the more. Does this make any sense to anyone who is reading? Have you ever heard of anyone else feeling this way about moving their body?

8 comments:

  1. It makes absolute sense to me. Not sure if I can do any better of a job explaining it, but I have occasions like this -

    Remember in grade school when someone would touch you and you thought you'd get "cooties" and then you'd have to have another friend "spray you with cootie spray"?

    I get a feeling like that. It's as if I let my arms and legs brush up against anyone or get too far out in the air, then they are dirty and I need to spray them off with cootie spray. It's especially bad in crowds sometimes when people brush up against you.

    I've alwasy felt it was related to having had my personal space invaded as a young girl

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  2. It's as if I let my arms and legs brush up against anyone or get too far out in the air, then they are dirty and I need to spray them off with cootie spray.

    Yup. You seem to understand. The part that I had trouble explaining was, "...if I let my arms and legs... get too far out in the air..." Bingo. That is totally the deal with my arms when I'm trying to do things. It feels bad inside, even emotionally painful in a way, if they "get too far out into the air".

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  3. I find it hard to stretch even when I'm lying on a double bed all alone.

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  4. Not sure. I get the need sometimes not to have eye contact with anyone, so I walk round with my head down.
    Also I create a barrier - no touch / no enter - zone around me.

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  5. I think this thing of mine is a barrier of sorts, too, K. Only I'm not sure if it is meant to keep others out, I think it's more to keep me in?

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  6. Now I feel a bit awkward commenting twice in one night, and both on old posts... but I know what that feeling is like. Sometimes I feel like if my arms and legs get too far away they might just fly off... become disconnected somehow... Sometimes my husband rolls me up in a blanket. Being so compressed and so "together" feels much, much better.
    But I don't ask him to do that for me very often because I don't want to seem "weird" more than necessary

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  7. You are very welcome here, new friend. I know what you mean. I don't like to look weird any more often than necessary, either. It makes things hard, but... I have to not let the kook show start rolling in front of the kids. Sometimes it makes me feel like a fake to have to keep up appearances like that right here at home, but it can't be helped.

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