“Wait, feelings are supposed to be IN THE BODY?”

On LessWrong, a writer reflects on a surprising discovery: emotions are supposed to be felt physically in the body. For years, the author experienced emotional numbness despite intellectual awareness — they could think worry, but not feel it in their chest. This created cascading problems: decisions paralyzed them, they missed the beauty of the world, they couldn't distinguish anxiety from genuine hunger. After reconnecting with bodily sensations through deliberate practice, they describe emotions less as abstract feelings like 'anxious' and more as tuples of sensation and location — a tension in the lower chest, pleasure in the fingertips, expansiveness in the shoulders. The shift transformed decision-making and empathy, turning emotional life from 360-pixel to 4K resolution.

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