The stomach drop, the hot face, the heart going before you've even read the message — that's your nervous system responding to a perceived threat to connection. It's a real physical event, it's faster than thought, and it is not evidence that anything bad has happened.
It is not intuition. Anxiety and intuition feel identical from the inside, and the difference is that intuition is quiet and anxiety is loud.
Give it twenty minutes and a physical task before you decide what it means. Feelings that survive twenty minutes and a walk are worth listening to.
“(not a text. cold water on your wrists, feet on the floor, twenty slow breaths out longer than in.)”
“(your body thinks a text is a tiger. tell it about the tiger situation.)”
“i got a bit in my head earlier — can we talk later?”
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Was It Casual is for reflection, not therapy or professional advice.