A string within: a letter from your nervous system.
For the days when it’s louder inside than outside, and silence feels like a luxury.
Hi, this is Lily. 🌼
Today, the part of you that usually just “holds it all together” wants to speak — your nervous system.
Letter from the Nervous System
I am your nervous system. I am like a string stretched tight between other people’s expectations, messages, and deadlines. I’m trembling, but I’m holding on — because you’re used to replying fast, reacting immediately, being “available” even when some quiet part of you wants to step out of the room. I dream of just a few minutes of silence where nothing and no one tugs at my ends.
When every pause gets filled with notifications, news, emails, posts, I live in a state of constant readiness: “what if something important happens.” I don’t get a chance to sag, to soften, to slowly release the tension — there’s no empty space between one “ping” and the next. Even silence has become a background for music, podcasts, other people’s voices, and it gets harder for me to feel where the outside ends and you begin.
I don’t blame you. I see how hard you try to be there for everyone — “at work,” “in messages,” “in the feed.” It’s just that in this kind of world I remain a string pulled almost to breaking point. Sometimes I don’t need big changes, I need tiny air holes: a few minutes where nothing plays, nothing flashes, nothing asks for a response. In that small emptiness, I remember that I can sound softer.
Today, the string is asking for a “minimum noise” day:
1 — turn off notifications for at least 1 hour;
2 — sit for 5 minutes without music or podcasts;
3 — say one small “no” today.
Share in the comments: 1/2/3 — what feels possible for your string today.
I’d love to see how our little gallery of nervous systems will sound if we give them even a moment of less noise and a bit more living air. 🌿
Lily Marigold
