Excitement
High-activation positive anticipation, forward-looking rather than reactive.
How it shows up
Excitement builds before something anticipated: a trip, a launch, a first date, a game about to start. It tends to bring restlessness, quick speech, and difficulty settling, and many people feel it in the chest and hands. It mobilizes energy toward what is coming. Its body feel overlaps a great deal with nervousness, and some research suggests people can partly read the same arousal either way.
How it differs from Anxiety
Excitement and anxiety can feel physically similar; excitement leans toward a hoped-for outcome while anxiety leans toward what might go wrong.
Notice
When your body feels charged before something, notice whether you read it as excitement, nerves, or both.
Where it is felt
Felt most in the chest, face and stomach.
Based on Nummenmaa et al. (2014), bodily maps of emotions, and related research. The map shows where people report bodily sensation, on average; individual experience varies.