Loosening Up the Body

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Just about all of my friends, family, and even acquaintances can tell you that I am the most anxious person that they know. For as long as I can remember, I have always been "high-strung." However, I feel that in the last couple of years, my anxiety has drastically decreased my productivity, motivation, and achievement. I fear that it will also take a toll on my future health. Therefore, I have lately been trying to experiment with a number of stress-relieving methods. I am not a very physically active individual. I do not know if this is because of a lack of motivation or a lack of time. However, I do know that my athleticism is severely hindered by how tight my body always feels. At the end of each day, when I am in bed, my entire body aches because I spend all day tightening my muscles. I usually do not even realize when I tighten them and hold myself in that position for an extended period of time. What is worse, is that when I do realize it, I am unable to relax my mind enough to relax my physical body. Lately, I have tried yoga, bellydancing, running, and am looking into kickboxing and pilates as means to loosen up my body. I am hoping that if I can find effective ways of relaxing my body, than it will be easier for me to relax my mind. So far, I have felt almost physically handicapped in these classes. I know that my body used to be able to move certain ways and that it is normal for one's body to be able to do certain things, however, mine currently can't. Even the simpliest moves or positions cause me to lose balance or become frustrated when I have difficulty. Furthermore, it is quite embarassing to be not one of the worse, but most definitely the worse in an exercise class. These are my thoughts on trying to loosen up my body as part of my battle against anxiety. I would love to know how others do so. I am not looking for overall ways to reduce stress in my life (although that would be helpful), but right now I am trying to tackle stress one step at a time and I think relaxing my muscles may be a good start. Any ideas?