Have you ever noticed how some sensations pull you outward—into alertness, scanning, bracing—while others draw you inward, toward breath, warmth, and a sense of being held inside yourself? That difference isn’t imaginary. It’s not mood. It’s not willpower. It’s the nervous system speaking through different pathways. We often talk about “the nervous system” as if it’s a single voice, a single switch you can flip from tense to calm. Yet the body doesn’t work that way. It commun