Soul-clenching

You may be asking yourself, "what the heck is soul clenching?". To me the definition of soul clenching is that full body tensing feeling you get when you are around certain people. Sometimes there is a good and valid reason for it, and sometimes, you have no explanation for it at all.

I have had this inexplicable ability to "recognize" people around me without having ever met them. Sometimes the feeling is faint and I can shake it off as "oh they remind me of someone else", and other times, it is far stronger. On these occasions it is a pull, a feeling of "I KNOW this person, we shared some past together". 

It can be extremely unnerving, especially when it includes a soul clench.

The other day we were driving through town and got caught at a red light. As we were sitting there I felt my body start to clench and had a pull to look over at the car next to us. There was a woman driving that car, a woman I had never met, had never even seen before. When the light changed and we started moving she turned her head and looked right at me, right into me! I felt a soul clench like I haven't felt in long time, it was weird, my hands were shaking and my stomach was in knots. There was nothing this woman did, but just her presence made my whole being uneasy. 

It took me quite awhile to calm myself down after that.

The happy, warm, fuzzy feelings of recognizing another soul are so welcome and the dark, cold, soul-clenching feelings of recognizing, what? I can't be sure, but those feelings are hard to deal with.

I hope it is a long time until I feel that again, never is good for me. ;-)