Nina A. (ESE) - On Bodily Sensations

Many people look at passersby and take pleasure in seeing well-dressed or attractive strangers. I rarely look at people that way. For example, if I see a girl standing in high heels, my own feet immediately begin to feel the strain of "standing" in those heels. It feels heavy. I look away. Then there’s a young girl with a bare midriff—and goosebumps run down my back from the cold. Or a slender lady walks toward me with a tightly cinched waist—my own chest feels "constricted," I can’t breathe; my body feels as if its own waist has been cinched tight.

Somewhere deep down, I pity them all—by processing these imaginary sensations through my own body, it feels to me as if they are suffering.