By Ananya Lele

Have you ever noticed how the body changes during difficult phases of life?
When we go through a tough time, we might try to keep a brave face, but our bodies often tell a different story. If you pay close attention, you will notice that stress doesn’t just stay in the head, it starts settling in the body.

Recently, I noticed something strange about myself. I love travelling, but somewhere between all the planning, organizing, managing my diet, and keeping up with my sleep schedule, I realized my body had completely tensed up. My legs had become stiff without me noticing, my shoulders were hunched, and my breathing had become shallow. It felt familiar. I instantly realized that these same things had happened to me before during my previous trip. I felt my body preparing for some kind of pressure and exhaustion all over again. That moment made me realize how deeply the body responds to stress, even before we consciously recognize it ourselves.
This was all because the muscles had been holding onto an “invisible” tension for so long that they had forgotten how to truly let go when a similar situation came up again. The body carried the burden of what the mind was trying to ignore.

In such situations the nervous system stays in a state of ‘high alert’. It is why in such situations, deep breathing, gentle stretching can feel unexpectedly emotional. This is not merely about fitness, they are the tools we use to signal safety to our nervous system that has forgotten how to be at ease. It is the practice of teaching the body that it is safe enough to relax, even when the to-do list is long. We learn that we don’t have to carry the weight of the journey on our shoulders.

And then I also realized that a lot of it came from the way I was looking at the situation itself. Instead of feeling excited or curious about the experience, my mind was trying to “solve” the experience of travelling rather than living it.