The room shifted and so did my body

Dear Delyara, Something happened today that reminded me how quickly my nervous system can change. A room shifted. That’s all. The tone became sharper. Someone’s mood changed. The atmosphere tightened in one of those subtle ways that many people can ignore. I couldn’t. My body felt it immediately. My shoulders rose. My thoughts narrowed. I became more careful with my voice. Everything in me started preparing before my mind had even finished understanding why. That is one of the loneliest parts of trauma for me. It can look like calm. It can feel like survival. The distance between those two things is larger than people think.