Armor that never comes off stops being protection and starts being a prison with good posture.

Guardedness works, and that is the problem with it. It keeps out what would hurt you and it keeps out everything else at the same rate, until you cannot tell whether you are safe or just sealed. What began as a response to something real turns into the only way you know how to stand.

You do not have to take all of it off. Pick one person who has earned it and say one true thing you would normally keep behind the plate. Notice what actually happens afterward rather than what you feared would. Protection is supposed to be something you can set down.