The Art of Knowing, Part One
Interoception
The way we know things is changing…
While truly reliable sources of information have been diminishing, there is simultaneously an abundance of free advice and information coming at us – most of which is contradictory and/or conflicting, especially concerning wellbeing and diet.
And while more and more 'helpful' content is coming at us, our lives and our health issues seem to be increasingly complex, nuanced, and straight up confusing.
We’re in a negative information feedback loop:
Our increasingly challenging lives
↓
Searching for solutions externally
↓
Feeding the market to create more solutions
↓
Information overload
↓
Adding to our challenging lives
When it comes to our wellbeing, we have just about given up on arriving at the truth anymore - because it feels elusive, and you can’t arrive at elusive.
As a 'heady' person, I’m naturally drawn to intellectual reason versus the ambiguous realm of intuition. And yet I intuitively know (ha!) that it's extremely helpful to focus on honing, tuning, and conditioning my intuitive body- so I can know truth - for both the people I help, and my own physical and mental wellbeing.
Luckily, we all have built-in systems for knowing things, and these systems can be refined and practiced for the purpose of discerning truth—our truth.
It is my belief that our ability to know truth- to discern what feels true - will be our literal superpower moving forward through an incredibly complex time - so I'm sharing some insights on developing these skills of discernment and intuition.
I’m starting with Interoception in PART 1 because heightened intuition (PART 2) is a natural byproduct of heightened interception.
Part one: Interoception: the language of your inner body
Simply put, Interoception it is one of our senses, a way we perceive. But unlike our more known senses, such as sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell—which help us interpret external stimuli, interoception is a sensory system that helps us perceive what's happening inside our bodies, from internal stimuli.
It’s through interoception that we sense our body temperature rising or falling, our hunger, physical pain or falling, shortness of breath.
Since we have autonomy over our bodies (HALLELUJAH, WE DO!) we use the data collected through interoception to monitor and regulate our internal bodily states.
When we feel hot we take off some clothes, when we feel hungry we eat, when we feel pain we shift our neck, if our heart beats too hard on a jog, we slow down.
We're constantly adjusting and adapting ourselves from the cues we receive from interoception. We are always taking actions, conscious or not, towards balance or homeostasis - to have our needs met - so we can be good - so we can stay well . The more astute our interoception, the easier it becomes to act in our best interest.
But of course we may also override and deny these important cues, which can lead us away from homeostasis, out of balance.
What healthy interoception looks like:
When a craving arrises- you don’t feed it instantly, like a child. Instead, you sit with it, and check in with your body to discern if it’s an addictive pattern, a stress response, or a genuine need.
Or, when you experience bodily discomfort or pain, you take note, breathe into it and explore its potential message.
Or, when you're three-quarters of the way through a meal, you might pause and sense that you are full, so you may choose to stop eating and settle into satiation.
The sharper our interception, the better we can hear the subtle cues our bodies send us, providing us with a better chance to regulate, repair, and adjust accordingly.
How your interoception becomes sharpened
Awareness. Like all subtle-body practices, it’s always our awareness that plays the most significant role. It is commonly understood for example, that in all cognitive therapies, increasing awareness of thought patterns precedes positive change. So, simply being aware of interoception, increases interoception. The way to ramp this up, is by communicating it to yourself, silently or aloud. “Hello hunger, I feel you, now let me find you something lovely to fuel up on”. Or, “Hi anxiety, I see you, now lets look at what’s wrong, and how we can settle into a state of presence and calm.”
Focused cleansing. When you remove inflammation, congestion, acidity and toxicity from the body - your will naturally heighten your interoception. I constantly notice this happening on retreats. When days are spent in full focus of the clear body, when the body is centre stage (by moving it, stretching it, cleansing it, nurturing it, sunning it, resting it, oiling it... and not much else) whenever it speaks, you can really and truly hear it.
Sitting with illness. Pain is a powerful attention grabber. It is obviously unpleasant. Discomfort and illness commandingly draw our attention inward. This offers an opportunity to hone our interoception simply by tuning into the sensations. Instead of allowing them to hijack our mind into despair, we can focus on these sensations mindfully. So instead of labelling sensations as 'bad' or 'unbearable', you observe them with curiosity and openness. This is not easy and takes practice, but it’s an availible option. (I’m going for a corrective surgery next month, a Septoplasty, which is apparently very painful for some time afterwards - so I’m getting ready to personally connect to this practice!)
Body Scanning This is a meditative practice where you simply move your conscious awareness around your entire body, scanning for sensations of interest, or mining for gold. Regular practice improves your ability to notice subtle internal sensations like tension, warmth, tingling, discomfort, or even peace - all of which is naturally sharpening your overall interoception (Yoga Nidra with it’s ‘rotation of consciousness’ is an amazing interoception-sharpening tool).
The Interception of feeling
We become hyper-aware of our internal experience when we are in deep states of emotional processing, such as anxiety, sadness or loneliness. Our emotions can demand a lot from our physical body—they can completely hijack our appetite, our bowels, our temperature, our heartbeat, our sleep.
Heartbreak literally hurts your heart, and anyone who has experienced an anxiety attack knows it’s a complete physical takeover.
In fact- It’s often the physical sensations of our internal body (our interoception) that call our attention to the emotional processing we are experiencing, or need to experience.
Just this morning, when I sat up in bed for a short 15-minute meditation, 3 minutes in I noticed a real tightness in my chest, like heat. I wondered, “could I have an infection? …Or is it my tax bill?” I immediately knew the answer and then acted accordingly: I bought more stuff online (just kidding). My interception helped me find the action step required for my nervous system to regulate, to move towards homeostasis.
Simply acknowledging our physical sensations allows us to pan out and see our physical experience as the conduit for the emotional processing that we need.
Our physical sensations allow us to view our physical experience as the potential conduit for emotional processing.
Our emotional experiences allow us to view our emotions as the potential conduit for physical action.
How heightened Intuition can break the negative feedback loop:
Our increasingly challenging lives
↓
Searching for solutions internally
↓
Starving a market wanting to sell more solutions and systems
↓
Mindful information consumption
↓
Adding more balance to our lives
…and the negative information feedback loop is broken!
Interoception is similar to a muscle, like all our senses, they get weak without being exercised. My hope is for us all to help each other to hone and strengthen our intuitive nature- as we navigate the crazy times ahead, because The Body speaks to us ALL DAY LONG whether we are listening or not.
Please let me know if you might start to add more interoception awareness into your life!
Stay tuned for Part 2 coming right behind…
Lots of love,
Emily
xo