Remembering to remember

hi chick,

first of all, there's nothing wrong with you. get past that. it's just a lifetime of habit that needs changing just like the habit of pulling up into the posture. what i suspect you'll find is that there is an emotional component to that belly tightness. so remembering to remember isn't just about relaxing the belly, it's about being aware of what you are experiencing. are you feeling stress? are you feeling defensive in the sense of protective of yourself? the point is when you remember to take a few seconds to scan your whole being to learn the root cause of this habit, then work on that. i can almost guarantee there is a mental/emotional state associated with that belly tension. learn about that and rewire that and i think you'll find the tight belly syndrome will resolve.

The thing about both prolapse and chronic hip pain that's so shocking is the medical system treats them as diseases. they are not. they are symptoms. making symptoms go away (or trying to) seems to be how the medical system wants to treat chronic conditions rather than digging deeper to find the root cause. what you have learned already through your postural work chick, is that when you address root causes, symptoms resolve themselves. part of the whole woman way is looking at symptoms and asking the question, "what is the root cause here?" then digging until you find it. the mind and body are inseparable. look at your whole experience of belly tightness and i'm confident you will find your way through this. i hope this is helpful.

best wishes,

lanny

I love your response lanny! I find that emotional issues can really "lock up" both the belly and hip areas. Chick, are you sure your belly is not relaxed? IMHO you don't want to "dump" the belly any more than you want to "squeeze"it in. Try taking some deep breaths either standing or sitting in posture (I like to place my hands on my belly) and focus on the relaxation as the diaphragm rises and descends. Remember to keep the chest lifted and head placement correct as you do this (sometimes even closing your eyes is helpful to fully become aware of the breath/posture connection). We don't want to loose our abdominal muscles, we just want to learn to not keep them contracted/tense all the time. I hope this helps a bit :)

Thank you Chick for the question and thank you Lanny for the answer.
I have had similar issues.
All else is GREAT!!!Sometimes it's just the mind wanting to stir up things.
Thanks for this site!!

I've been thinking about this too. Very helpful question from an experienced WW-er and great response from Lanny.

Chickaboom, when you are in posture and you diaphragm breathe slowly and gently, you will notice that it is the top of your stomach (that rounded part north of your navel and south of your ribs) which rises and falls/ expands and retracts. If you pull your stomach in as you describe, it is the muscle that extends from your pelvic bone up to your navel that comes in and brings with it this same part of the muscle north of your navel that I have first mentioned. WWposture should tighten the muscles either side of your stomach area and in that I mean the edge lines running north and south on the edges from your ribs to your hips. These are the muscles that you should feel are tight and the rest soft; the edge lines and the top of your stomach, but only slightly tight in contrast to the relaxation of the other muscles. I have been finding this differentiation of the muscle much easier since I have been standing to urinate; the prolapsed muscles are strengthening and so too are the stomach and back muscles possibly because they are not able to totally collapse when sitting on the toilet over the void as they once did.

Great responses to this question. Chicka, I too experience this tightness once in awhile, and for me it is totally and completely the result of letting stress take over. It always surprises me, because the posture has truly become second nature to me, and this just proves that there is still something we have within ourselves that can cause us to tense up in this way when we are under siege. So keep working, we all have our particular tipping point at which the posture will "take over", and then, even after we have crossed over that point, there will always be times when we have to tell ourselves to relax. - Surviving

I'm always reading or watching something and am amazed at how often I run across the subject of this tension in the center of our feminine being. It goes back beyond us in the precipitation of the sexual revolution of the '60's, further beyond Freud and his response to the Victorian Age, way back to the frozen womb of Sarah in Genesis, and ultimately to Eve finding her sense of nakedness and shame having eaten of the knowledge of good and evil. Besides movies and tv, personal conversations, etc., I've found this subject in my research (okay, browsing) in the last several weeks on Wilhelm Reich, in the characters of Zorba the Greek, and now in the novel 1984 by George Orwell (well worth another read, so glad I found it again) where the protagonist describes having sex with his wife (just a few examples).

I believe Lanny stated the problem very well as feeling defensive in the sense of self-protection and that it is age-old and world-wide. It goes to very core of our being and is manifested in one of its ways as prolapse. This tension (defensiveness, stress) is a root cause. It sounds like a meaningless generalization....so big as to be unsolvable. It might be simplified in just understanding how it affects our posture (pulling us inward, tightening up). I have found, though, that by asking the question my eyes are open to the discussion of it everywhere which is helping me find my personal solution involving inner calm and confidence. I just wanted to share my amazement and gratitude at the wealth of knowing that is found in making a connection with another person whether on a website, in a book, face to face, or in spirit.

What an insightful post Bebe. Thank you for sharing it with us all. My way to deal with this issue is to have several short periods a day (anywhere you happen to be) and after having checked your posture and finding a tightness--put your mind's eye on your belly and take a deep breath--keeping your mind's eye on your belly exhale and say "PEACE" . Do this 10 times and you will see how much it helps to remain in posture with the relaxed belly for longer periods of time. You will feel that tension flowing out of you. Hope this helps some other TT (Tight Tummies)