Interoception: The ability to FEEL your insides

Your ability to feel ~ inside~ your body is called INTEROCEPTION, and it has been shown to have a direct effect on our levels of anxiety, depression, freeze-response, overwhelm and overall coping capacity.

It has also been shown to lower the markers for inflammation in whatever area of the body our interoceptive awareness focuses.

The key here is, as Plato said: KNOW THYSELF.
[ and know what works for you! ]

Through interoceptive awareness cultivation, we begin to see our inner landscape and signaling (such as a rising heart rate, or a tightening throat, when you're about to have a difficult conversation) not as something to unconsciously panic further into, but actually as a signal to respond intelligently, by engaging our mind, body, breath and awareness in specific ways that will bring us back into a felt sense of self, clarity, connection, and ease - which includes deep breathing, and an experience of Embodied Presence.

Some ways we can develop our interoceptive awareness in yoga include:

👂 feeling the subtle movement of your spine or ribs with each breath
👂 feeling into your heart beat and blood stream
👂 feeling and bringing "energy" or awareness into key acupressure points or meridians
👂 feeling into the varied temperature and tension landscape throughout your body

These are all ways in which we can train ourselves to FEEL, RESPOND and EMBODY
rather than panic, shut down and DISSOCIATE
in the face of stress, anxiety, and yes, difficult situations or conversations.

Some more examples of feeling your body INSIDE:
(which I sometimes cheekily call “self-referencing” or “cross-referencing” as a way to positively support an inquiry into the somatic intelligence of the Self and Body) 

🔹 attuning into the way your ribs, spine, core, or pelvs moves with each breath

🔹 feeling the movement of your lungs, your heartbeat, or bloodstream

🔹 the sensations inside your gut, organs, connective tissue, temperature, and more.