relaxing & me & tendonitis

[wispfox]

I? Am really, really bad at remembering to relax, let alone already _being_ relaxed.

This has always been a problem, in that my shoulders and upper back tend to hate me on a regular basis, but is much more of a problem with the tendonitis.

I _have_ to force myself to concentrate on spending a few minutes relaxing, especially shoulders/neck/arms/hands, both when my computer forces me to take a break, and when my wrists are actively being twingy at me. This is... difficult. Especially since any level of concentration likely means that I'm tense (so... even things not particularly involving my hands or wrists, like movies with any sort of intentional tension caused, are problems), so any time I get interested/involved with something, I'm likely to be tense and need to take a break from it (an exception is reading a book, I believe, except that requires holding something).

This is a problem, and one _hell_ of a hard habit to break. I had already been working on this, but I now both have much more reason to do so and much more immediate feedback if I am or am not doing a good job at it. If I'm not - or only barely - in flare, pain signals are useful feedback for this, and the hard plastic wrist braces I have force me to use the rest of my arm instead of my wrists as much, so I am more likely to notice if shoulders are tense.

It's... interesting. And I _know_ much of why I'm still having as much trouble as I am is the tension issue I have. (well, that and the fact that sleep was already problematic, and has huge effects on my healing) Especially when high levels of frustration also tend to make me tense (and seriously stress me out and wreck havoc on my cope levels; one of the easiest and most consistent ways to get me to cry is high levels of frustration). And... not being able to do things that I 'should' be able to do, or do anything _else_ if I want to be able to do daily living things (jasra is handling large amounts of daily living things requiring hands, for me, right now, allowing me to not _only_ do such things, and allowing me to work)? Very frustrating.

Comments

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

when my computer forces me to take a break
How does it do this? I am reminded that a friend from college wrote a little background app for the Mac that would pop up periodic reminders to take a break. One could write an application that could be more forceful about it, if called for. I suppose someone already has.

[3smallishmagi.livejournal.com]

Have you tried speech recognition software? (e.g. Dragon naturally speaking etc.)

Admittedly, your room-mate would hear you talking to yourself all the time
"slash me giggles uncontrollably."

[drwex]

We have no training on relaxing (our bodies). Is it any wonder we're so bad at it?

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Some time ago I wrote a java app that (after a specified time interval) would, every second, flash and expand, until it filled the screen. After a "courtesy interval" of doing this, it would flash, expand, and grab focus. Reasonably effective when I was needing microbreaks. There's lots of such software out there, some of which include cute stuff like showing you stretches during the enforced breaks.

wispfox, I know you've played around a bit with neurofeedback stuff; any luck tracking down one of these "relaxation games", where you 'win' by being more relaxed than the other person? It'd require focused attention + relaxation, and might be good training/practice for the muscle memory/etc. on relaxed attention.

One such: http://budgetgallery.org/slambert/work/simmer-down-sprinter

I suppose one could be written to use that biofeedback USB sensor I saw at your place once...

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Gnome menu, system, preferences, keyboard, typing break tab. :) (in other words, it comes with Gnome)

Alternatives: http://www.workrave.org/welcome/ - which I've not tried.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Have not specifically looked for a biofeedback game entirely meant to be relating to relaxing (the one I have is more than that, unfortunately); did not know they existed. Will investigate further when my hands let me (your link looked insufficiently interesting, as well as requiring much space by virtue of being arcade-style).

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

That rather requires decent speech recognition software under Linux, which I have yet to find.

I _wish_ I had that option, much as I dislike spoken word, as it'd at least allow me to do part of my job w/o my hands.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Interestingly, I _do_ have some training in that (meditation and the like), but it all requires me to be paying attention to my body, and not to something else.

[jasra]

Nah, that wouldn't phase me. I'm a programmer by education so I'm used to hearing people muttering. ;)

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to work on this as well. I don't even notice until my shoulders are hunched up and I'm in pain. I wish I could notice is sooner and skip the whole tension/pain/discomfort stage.

[tooth-grinding.livejournal.com]

You might be interested to know that biofeedback has been used to relieve TMJ symptoms by relaxing neck, jaw, and facial muscles. It is really great for anything that allows one to ease tension in the muscles no matter where it exists.