Indexed "clickers" or "pull and pray" friction?
Shifting really does become second nature...before long you'll "flip it" rather than push or pull and it will somehow land where you want--even without trimming---sometimes!
I'm concerned about your leaning back and "standing on the pedals". Removing weight from your saddle (if that's the case) and unbalancing yourself by reaching for the shifter seems an invitation to instability. Keep pedaling, though you might pedal just a bit "softer" as you shift, and, as people above advise, reach down.
An alternative to brake/shifter combinations ("brifters") might be bar-end shifters. Hands stay on bars because the shifters simply extend from the bar ends..... also much cheaper.
Finding 7 spd index bar-ends might be tricky.
Anyway....stick with reaching down--it does vecome second nature--although if you're just getting back to riding it may be yet one more awkwardness. Today's tentative newbies are tomorrow's self-assured, no-brainer veterans.
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..... "I renewed my youth, to outward appearance, by mounting a bicycle for the first time." Mark Twain, Speeches
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