Interoception is the ability to sense the state of your internal body. Sensations can include hunger, thirst and pain as well as emotional states such as fear. Have you ever “known” that you were about to get sick before the first symptoms appeared? Or you knew that a loved one was in danger, even from far away? This is interoception at work. Some people are better than others at interoception but it’s also a skill that you can learn. Your immune function, stress regulation and pain perception, for example, can be modulated. Interoception is a form of non-verbal communication. It is also known as “the sense of the inside.” It is a sense that can help us to know how our bodies feel. It’s different from other senses, like sight and hearing, because it doesn’t involve light or sound waves. There are two main types of interoceptive awareness. s: visceral sensation (the feeling in the gut) and parietal sensation (touching). Visceral sensation provides you with information about the inner working of your body. You are not relying on external cues. Parietal awareness works by sensing touch through nerve cells located on your skin surface called Merkel’s disks. Interoception, then is the ability to become aware of your internal signaling system. Once honed, you could learn to listen to it, respond and trust yourself in the process. You are learning to look for cues such as heart rate change, muscle tension or relaxation. Breathing patterns or sweating are other cues. In some sense, when you are meditating, it is this cue that you are training your mind to look for. Body scanning or focusing your mind on your breathing, for example. I gave been trying to train myself to read my body cues better. It is surprising what you can discover when you pay attention to your body.
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