Q I work an office job in Dong-gu, Incheon. Every afternoon when reports pile up, my upper abdomen locks up. Why does tension make me feel this way?
A The stomach and the brain are wired together, so tension stops stomach movement first. Eating in a hurry while tense means food arrives before the stomach has received its "time to work" signal, so it simply sits there. This is not a matter of temperament — your days are built in a way that stiffens the stomach.
Detailed Answer
Under stress the body spends its resources on alertness rather than digestion. Emptying slows while sensitivity rises, so the same amount of food feels far more distending. If lunch is rushed in ten minutes under pressure and dinner is a large late meal after the tension breaks, the stomach never gets a chance to recover.
Korean Medicine Clinic Perspective
We ask less about what you ate and more about the state you were in when you ate. When we address both the tension pressing on the stomach and its dulled movement, indigestion on stressful days usually drops noticeably. Even one long exhale before your first bite works as a signal to the stomach.
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