The Art and Science of Interoception

The most effective way to learn is by tuning in to the subtleties of your internal experience during the vicissitudes of daily life. This is especially true when you feel reactive, frustrated, or triggered by something or someone, as these are usually the moments when there is the most to sense, track, and feel.

Along these lines, our interoceptive palette includes: • Mental (racing thoughts or foggy vs. calm and alert) • Awareness (expanded and receptive vs. narrow and protective) • Posture (open and relaxed vs. tense and collapsed) • Breath (deep, slow, and soft vs. shallow and rapid) • Emotion (gratitude, joy, sadness, etc.)

When there is a lack of interoception, we’re unable to fully feel the sensations associated with emotions. Unfortunately, this means they remain beneath our conscious awareness and instead are projected onto others — or we find ourselves emotionally overreacting in ways that are rarely conducive to our long-term goals.

Multiple studies also tie interoceptive abilities with the ability to feel and coregulate with the emotions of others—in other words, the capacity for empathy.

a lack of interoceptive capacity tends to be associated with prolonged maladaptive stress responses—research-speak for the highway to burnout .

By learning to cultivate internal receptivity, we can listen to the treasure trove of data coming from the activation shifts of neurotransmitters—like adenosine cueing a need for sleep, a change in our breathing mechanics signaling a shift in our arousal response, or just being aware of how rested we feel upon waking and making choices about our da... See more

It turns out that we have at least four additional senses—and the most underrated and practical of them is known as interoception .  The word has two parts: “intero–” refers to “ internal ” and “–ception” to “ awareness .” In essence, it means awareness of our internal state, which includes learned associations, memories, emotions, and all the... See more