Nobody is asking me anything. My body is still bracing for it.

The meeting ended.

The conversation is over.

The room moved on.

Yet something inside me is still preparing for impact.

My shoulders stay tight.

My jaw stays clenched.

My breathing stays shallow.

The interaction ended.

Part of my body didn’t get the message.

Nobody is challenging me.

Nobody is questioning me.

Nobody is waiting for an answer.

Reality has moved on.

My nervous system hasn’t fully followed.

The strange thing is that this often happens without awareness.

The mind leaves the meeting.

The body keeps carrying it.

Not because something is wrong.

Because the body is slower to let go than the calendar.

Sometimes tension isn’t coming from what is happening.

It’s coming from something that already happened.

A moment that ended.

A conversation that passed.

An interaction the body is still preparing to survive.

The cost is subtle.

The day continues.

The evening arrives.

Recovery tries to begin.

Yet part of the body remains on alert.

Waiting for something that isn’t happening anymore.

Sometimes the first step is noticing:

Nobody is asking me anything.

I don’t need to keep preparing for it.