Interoception: The ability to FEEL your insides



image credit: unsplash.com


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.



Mainly, the key takeaway is this:

Self-awareness and a felt sense of conscious embodiment, combined with a heart that is loving and grateful - are incredibly powerful tools to aid you in a very deep healing.

Come to yoga some time! we practice these, always 💜

Love!

Natasha.

Yoga for All: Featuring Nicole Cardoza

One sacred act daily
in the name of Love,
for the well-being and freedom of all:

For very simple and direct guidance on this intention, I highly highly recommend subscribing to
anti-racism daily, an informative, graceful, action driven newsletter
by world renowed yoga teacher and activist Nicole Cardoza​

I also recommend the book: Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saab.
Available in hardcover, ebook, or audiobook.

MAKING SPACE FOR THE SACRED

"Behind the spine is infinity.⁠
Below the pelvic floor,⁠
Invisible pulsating roots⁠
Open downward into space.⁠

The heart is as wide as a spiral galaxy.⁠
Steadily consider⁠:
Back, root, heart.
Know the living body of vastness⁠
That you are. ⁠"⁠

~ The Radiance Sutras

---

Excerpt from Skill in Action, Radicalizing your Yoga Practice to create a just world,
by Michelle Cassandra Johnson:

"My experience as a black woman living in a culture that is wedded to white supremacy led me to become a social worker. My experience of being forced to disconnect from my body to survive led me to become a social justice activist. My longing for liberation in my body and beyond led me to become a yogi. My understanding of how social change occurs led me to merge social justice and yoga.”

---


Excerpts from the gnostic text: Thunder, Perfect Mind
an ancient text discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945, composed before 350 C.E :

“I was sent forth from the power,
and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
Do not be ignorant of me.
​
For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the barren one, and many are my sons.
I am she whose wedding is great, and I have not taken a husband.
​
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
​
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I, am the utterance of my name.
​
Why, you who hate me, do you love me,
and hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
and you who confess me, deny me.
​
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
Give heed to me.
​
Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,
and you will find me in those that are to come.
​
But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.
​
Do not hate my obedience
and do not love my self-control.
In my weakness, do not forsake me,
and do not be afraid of my power.
​
For why do you despise my fear
and curse my pride?
I am she who exists in all fears
and strength in trembling.
I am she who is weak,
and I am well in a pleasant place.
​
I am senseless and I am wise.
​
I am the one whom they call Law,
and you have called Lawlessness.
​
I, I am godless,
and I am the one whose God is great.
​
Why do you curse me and honor me?
You have wounded and you have had mercy.
Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known.
And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away.
​
I am peace,
and war has come because of me.
​
On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me,
and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.
​
I am control and the uncontrollable.
I am the union and the dissolution.
I am the one below,
and they come up to me”

Living in Paradox

"It’s dark because you are trying too hard.

Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.

Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.

Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them...."
​

~ Aldous Huxley

“The success of Yoga must not be measured by how flexible your body becomes, but rather by how much it opens your heart."
​

~ T. K. V. Desikachar

---

“I came to yoga by way of the breath.

When someone has experienced trauma, the breath is the most useful resource to stabilize the nervous system. The breath sends a signal that all is well; everything is okay. In a culture that would rather my black body not exist, let alone breathe, this feeling of “all is well” has been more than illusive. From the moment that I took my first breath until now, I have been on a journey to find air, to create an expansive inhale and a deepening of experience with my exhale.

At the age of four, I was diagnosed with asthma, following in the footsteps of both of my parents.

It wasn’t until college that I was prescribed an inhaler that allowed me access to fuller, deeper breaths. Many years later, I am still using it. But college wasn’t all deep breathing. I had become keenly aware of oppression, racism and white supremacy. I was a black girl at a mostly white college in Colonial Williamsburg. I didn’t fit into the Black Student Movement because I wasn’t “black enough” and I didn’t fit in with the white students because I am not white. So, I stood somewhere between, trying to find my footing and the grey zone

I was first introduced to yoga in college. I remember being the only black girl in our fitness class practicing yoga. My understanding of oppression and privilege made me feel disembodied. That yoga class was not a space for affirmation, validation or spiritual transformation. I left that fitness class and college lacking a deeper connection with my body, mind, heart and spirit. I graduated college in three years to allay the burden of my mother having to pay off an even larger student loan."

~ Excerpts from Skill in Action, by Michelle Cassanda Johnson.

---

No mud, no lotus.

~ Traditional Buddhist saying