Touch is instinctive and adaptive. By that I mean the way we receive it. And the way we experience it.
Instinctive because we need it to survive. Adaptive because we adjust to the quality of touch being offered.
The way you lean in a little. Or freeze. Or let it continue because it feels delicious. Or because it’s easier than the fallout. Because you love them, even if you don’t like them anymore. Maybe you love them and never liked them. Maybe you love them and still do. Maybe you never loved them or liked them at all. That’s also a thing.
No matter the configuration, your body responds how it responds.
Breath hitches. Skin warms. Sensation travels. Tingles. Tension. Slack.
And sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between what your body is doing… and what it actually wants.
Unless the contrast is undeniable.
Fingers move across your skin, and something in you answers. Out of habit. Or memory. Maybe instinct.
Your body moves toward it. Opening. Unfurling.
An obvious HELL YES.
This kind of clarity can feel disorienting in the best way.
Because your body also remembers the other times. The ones you brushed aside. Explained away. The times when your mind coaxed your body into participation. When you felt that NO thrumming in the nucleus of every cell.
No exists outside the context of violation.
But when there’s no obvious harm, no clear line crossed, we collapse everything into one wildly ambiguous category: Touch, intimacy, and connection. Especially in LTRs. As if they should all feel more or less the same.
They don’t.
And your body tells the tales of the yeses and the nos.
In this week’s episode, we’re noticing that. The moments when your body leans in. And when it doesn’t. Because it’s all data, remember?
Listen here (up there 👆🏾) or wherever you get your podcasts.
If this resonated with you, share the link with a friend
or, even better, with your partner.
