Another highly important point in the conquest of poise is the struggle against awkwardness, which is at once the parent and the offspring of timidity.
Many people only lack poise because they fear ridicule of their obvious embarrassment and of the awkward hesitation of their movements.
Others fall into this embarrassment as the result of exhibitions of clumsiness in which they cover themselves with ridicule. The terror of renewing their moments of torture drives them into a reserve, from which they only emerge with a constraint so evident that it is reflected in their gestures, the evidences of a deplorable awkwardness.
It is exceedingly simple to find a remedy for these unpleasant conditions. One must make up one's mind to combat their exhibitions of weakness by determining to acquire ease of movement.
We have all noticed that awkwardness occurs only in public.
The most embarrassed person in the world carries himself, when alone, in a fashion quite foreign to that which is the regret of his friends.
It may happen, however, that awkwardness too long allowed to become a habit will have a disastrous effect upon our daily actions, and that the person who is lacking in poise will end by keeping up, even in private, the awkward gestures and uncouth movements that cause him eternal shame at his own expense.
In such a case a cure will be a little more difficult to effect, but it can be arrived at, without a shadow of doubt, if our advice is faithfully followed out.
It is an obvious truth that the repetition of any act diminishes the emotion it gave rise to in us at the first performance.
Physical exercises are then in order, to achieve for us suppleness of movement and to extend its scope.
Every morning, after our breathing exercises (which can be performed in bed between the moment of waking and that of getting up, according to our advice to those whose time is limited) it is absolutely necessary to devote five minutes to bodily exercises, the object of which is the acquirement of an easy carriage from the frequent repetition of certain movements.
For instance, one should endeavor to expand the chest as far as possible, while throwing back the head and extending the arms, not by jerky movements but by a wide and rhythmical sweep, which should be every day made a little more extended.