The muscles used to make a smile actually send a biochemical message to our nervous system that it is safe to relax the flight of freeze response.

The mistake we make is that when we're feeling another person is not treating us in the way that makes us feel secure and loved, we fixate our attention on that person and what's wrong with them. We also fixate on what's wrong with us. Instead, we can bring forward two wings of awareness: the wing of mindfulness (noticing what's going on inside us) and the wing of kindness (compassion to what's going on inside us).

When we experience stress, the nervous system tries to control things. Part of waking up is discovering what we are beyond that controlling organism.

We are waiting for the next moment to contain what this moment does not.

I would say both Western psychology and Eastern paths would recognize that we get caught up in feeling like a separate self and an unworthy self.

The emotion of fear often works overtime. Even when there is no immediate threat, our body may remain tight and on guard, our mind narrowed to focus on what might go wrong. When this happens, fear is no longer functioning to secure our survival. We are caught in the trance of fear and our moment-to-moment experience becomes bound in reactivity. We spend our time and energy defending our life rather than living it fully.

People have to find their rhythm. Some people have need for more contact and time together and some people need more space.