Retail Reflex

You can feel disagreement before it fully reveals itself.

The air tightens.

Words sharpen.

There’s an undercurrent that hums instead of flows.

That's when my blood pressure rises.

And my stomach lights up.

Like a hive of wasps — agitated.

Buzzing.

Alert.

Years in customer service trained something deep.

When you’ve stood across from frustration,

absorbed blame,

listened to people who are convinced you’re wrong,

and kept your voice steady while finding a path forward —

your nervous system learns a pattern:

Stay even.

Listen first.

Don’t escalate.

Separate tone from content.

Solve what can be solved.

Let the rest pass through.

Don't take it personally.

It becomes automatic — emotional intelligence and self-regulation.

The friction I navigate now isn’t the same as standing behind a counter fielding complaints.

It’s more layered.

More complex.

Higher stakes.

It carries weight in different ways.

But the process inside me?

Unchanged.

The hive hums.

And I regulate.

Not because I don’t feel the agitation.

I do.

Not because the tension is small.

It isn’t.

But because I’ve practiced steadiness in friction for decades.

The arena changes.

The dynamics evolve.

The complexity increases.

But my internal process remains the same.

When the wasps buzz.

I breathe. I listen. I stay level.

And I move toward resolution without matching the sharpness in the air.