Some atmospheres still make my body younger than my age

Dear Delyara, It’s hard to explain what I mean by that, but I feel it clearly. Certain emotional atmospheres — tension, sudden sharpness, unpredictability in tone — can make me react from somewhere much younger than I am. More careful, more watchful, less spontaneous, more tuned to danger than to possibility. The body changes first. The age shifts before the thought catches up. That experience is difficult because it can happen in rooms that look ordinary enough to everyone else. Trauma does not always announce itself. Sometimes it just alters posture.