Editing Openai/694ddf6c-3338-800e-8d9c-661b40accaac (section)

=== Assistant: That tightening matters. ===
That tightening matters. It’s your body saying: capacity exceeded.

What’s happening right now:
* You’re holding three nervous systems.
* You’re suppressing action and emotion.
* That creates muscular bracing (jaw, chest) — classic “don’t intervene, don’t flee” bind.

This isn’t anxiety. It’s inhibited agency.

Micro-reset (60–90 seconds, subtle):
* Drop your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Let it rest heavy.
* Exhale longer than you inhale (even by 1–2 counts).
* Press your feet into the floor and notice pressure, not feeling. No meaning-making yet. Just unload tension.

Reframe to reduce load
You’re not here to:
* assess readiness for a caregiver
* decide what they should do
* protect either of them

You are here to:
* witness how the system runs without you compensating That’s data, not duty.

Key insight
Your body learned early that stillness = danger.
So even observation feels like neglect.

It isn’t.

You’re expanding capacity by not stepping in.

If the clenching doesn’t ease after the micro-reset, that’s your signal to change physical position, not thoughts. Movement before meaning.

Stay with me if you want. I can help you metabolize what you’re holding without turning it into action.