My gym class teacher once had us do this relaxation exercise where we had to lie on the floor, tense up all of our muscles one at a time, and then relax each muscle one at a time. I thought it was pointless, and the mats we were lying on smelled like a hundred sweaty armpits. But by the end of the exercise, I actually did feel better. Looser. Reading that letter, it was like I’d been tensing my whole body for all of my twelve years, and now I could finally relax. At least a little bit.
