<h1>Aura ready for this?</H1>

Found this on the internet one or two years ago

"The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part of them as their flesh." (Lucian Freud)

I believe in auras. They don't have to be lights or colours surrounding a body; they can be, but they are most likely some internal geist which as escaped to the surface. At its peak, it is an overwhelming feeling of being just right. At its worst it is a deep depression. These types of auras can be detected by those around you. Everybody gives off an aura. How else can you explain liking or not liking a person you just met.

I also beieve some auras are light or colours surrounding a person. I think babies might see auras. They cry when held by some strangers while they sleep happily for others. These types might be the production of some vestigial brain function, lost to adults through time by our refusal to believe what we see. Perhaps they explain the concept of "halos". But I digress.

You can feel when your aura is good or is beginning to deteriorate.

We know that some migraine sufferers experience an aura just before the headache starts. Well the same goes for the pleasures of Festination, that involuntary tendency to take shorter, accelerating steps until you counter act, rest, or try defensive techniques to stave off the condition.

The point is, you can feel you are about to festinate before the actual event. It is like an aura. There are no colours involved, just an overall feeling that you are not quite in charge, as if there is a disturbance in the force and your defences are about to be breached by unknown forces. It is a very strange feeling and if you are in a public place, people around you will know you are not A-OK. Without knowing you, they want to help (or they might stay clear of you, sensing that you are not one they need to know). They have experienced an insight into your condition by your fading aura.

When you get that feeling of "not quite right", the best thing to do is to sit down until the feeling passes, but if you are in a hurry and have no time to rest, here are some techniques for staving off the festination event passed on to me by experienced PWP.

• Start consciously correcting your pace. Walk upright and think "heel - toe, heel -toe".....and so on and so on at your normal pace. You might even say the mantra out loud. This might counteract your brain which is saying, "make small steps, speed up, collapse."
• Take bigger steps, make your arms swing. March. Like a drum major. You don't have take huge steps like a North Korean soldier marching before his Exalted leader, but you do have to march with a stiff upper body and chin pulled in. It won't be long before the feeling of lost control passes.
• This next one was told to me by a long-time sufferer. He said that when you feel you are about to festinate, turn 360 degrees, then take one exaggerated long step and the feeling should pass fairly quickly.

So much for auras. Just convince yourself you are the master of your body and when attacked by PD, there are always ways to deal with its onslaught. Keep your chin up and look at the brighter side of things. It will improve your aura. Be optimistic. It is not as bad as you think it is.

It's not that optimism solves all of life's problems; it is just that it can sometimes make the difference between coping and collapsing.(L. Macdonald)