I am a sports fan, and now I am rooting for the athletes from both sides of the strait in 2024 Paris. When it comes to a nail-biter, like the womens volleyball qualifier between China and the US the other day, it made me feel so excited and anxious that it seemed like I was sitting on a carpet with needles (如坐針氈).

Interestingly, English has a similar idiom: "be on pins and needles" to describe the tense nerves in a situation of uncertainty.

PS. When I was at work, once I heard a superior make a solecism on the idiom 如坐針氈 as 如坐針毯 in an indoor speech, which made me feel like "being on a carpet with needles.". Ha.