Interoception — What You Feel Is Important

I just listened to Michael Pollan on The Ezra Klein Show talking about his new book A World Appears, where he dove deep into the subject of consciousness in his science-, research-, and experiential-based way.

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There is a lot of beautiful information and discovery that Pollan found through this process—much of it things I’ve felt for a while—but one major takeaway stood out the most to me, because it feels like such a vital message to bring into the mainstream:

His latest understanding, and something I deeply agree with, is that thinking is not the center of consciousness—embodiment is.

Consciousness is deeply tied to the body. In some way, the brain developed to keep the body safe, not the other way around.

Essentially, we are embodied beings first, and thinking comes after.

Feelings happen in the body. Emotions are the consequence of the way our mind and nervous system perceive those feelings.

Then thoughts are what we may use to make sense of what is happening.

Feeling → Emotions → Thoughts

This is a model for how to work with consciousness—and how to experience a fuller range of the human experience.

The mainstream largely disavows feelings and emotions. If you’ve been following me, you know this is something I say often.

And I should add that there is no strict hierarchy, linearity, or sequence that is cut and dry with this.

Thoughts can engender emotions, which then cause your body to feel things.

This happens whether you are aware of it or not.

What I am interested in—as someone devoted to raising consciousness—is supporting myself and others in becoming more aware of the interconnections of this process.

In other words, as Michael Pollan points to, being embodied is a major aspect of consciousness. And in my opinion, many of us have been conditioned not to include that aspect of consciousness within our experience.

This isn’t new. It has been happening for hundreds of years.

What This Means for Therapeutic Modalities

I think this book is huge for those of us somatic practitioners who have been consistently speaking to how important it is to practice connecting to the feelings in our bodies.

This is not an intellectual thing. This is a practice that must be tended to.

And once you begin doing it, it becomes something more than just a practice—it becomes the way you move through life. This is what you do everywhere.

Why?

Because it is a major part of existing as a species that is aware it is aware.

And for some reason, we have evolved to be less aware of our whole experience.

I’ve heard people say, before beginning deep inner work that is somatic-based, “for my whole life, I’ve only been experiencing half of my life.”

That feels so beautifully and heartbreakingly true.

There is a resonance I feel with that statement—and I know others can feel it, too.

So, Interoception

To put it simply, interoception is the ability to sense, be aware of, and interpret sensations and feelings within the body—sensations such as heartbeat, sore muscles, tension in your shoulders, gut reactions, a heavy or broken heart, etc.

It’s not totally necessary to break it down like this when it comes to doing breathwork and shadow work, but in science, they often describe it in three parts:

Interoceptive awareness → noticing sensations

Interoceptive accuracy → how precisely you detect them

Interoceptive sensibility → how you relate to them

In my work, I am working more so with awareness and relationship, not accuracy.

Even though I really enjoy learning about science, I can also find it limiting and not always applicable. So I tend to jettison it at times and instead remain open to what is happening now—without concepts, theories, ideas, and data guiding me.

That being said, however, this book that Michael Pollan has written provides research-based, serious journalistic discovery into something that ancient civilizations and spiritual traditions have always known about the layers of consciousness.

Now it is reaching the mainstream, and it is being backed in the way the mainstream tends to trust.

So I sense that a bigger wave of the embodiment movement is coming, which I am happy about.

How Interoception Ties to the Work

So in shadow work sessions, we see that emotions are usually connected to sensations in the body—and sometimes instructed by them, and vice versa.

That means when you are sad, there are bodily sensations tied to it. When your body is hurting, you might feel frustrated or scared about that.

The same is true in breathwork sessions.

We carry a lot of stuck emotions from life experiences that required us to repress them in order to stay safe, small, or “smart.”

The breath has this amazing way of quieting the thinking mind and allowing us to drop into the emotional and feeling aspects of consciousness.

This is where we can finally—if the nervous system deems it safe enough—release big emotions.

I have also seen the thinking mind quiet, and awareness settle first onto feelings in the body, which then leads to big emotional releases.

From what I have seen, that is what tends to happen more often than not.

Someone brings their full awareness onto the feelings and sensations in the body first—then the emotions come.

Then the mind begins to have thoughts that are clearer and more refined.

We eventually connect all three together—unifying these levels of conscious awareness—which I think is incredibly useful in all of life, especially in the relational domain, which Michael Pollan expressed as part of his theory for why consciousness developed to this complex human level—because of our deep proclivity toward being social.

How Interoception Ties to All of Life

Once we can unify all aspects of ourselves and make that a normal way of living, so many amazing things begin to happen.

My experiences in the work has led me to an increase in self-trust, self-Love, self-regulation, balance, autonomy, inner strength, clearer thinking, flow, overall health, and presence.

The most important thing in all of this is the increase in presence. This is what helps us learn to include all parts of life into our awareness—even that which disturbs, shakes, or dysregulates us.

Something important that increases when learning to feel is a confidence in your ability to face anything that arises.

Feelings and emotions can be, for some people, the last thing they want to experience.

I’ve certainly been there.

In doing deep work, my resistance and fear have sent signals such as, “If you feel this fully, it will destroy you, and you will never come back from it,” or, “If you feel this, then you will lose everything—such as Love, respect, reputation, esteem, motivation, etc.”

The nervous system protects us from feeling.

This is because we have been so hurt in the past. Being vulnerable and feeling has likely been used against us in relationships and social contexts. It certainly was for me.

So I really understand how powerful that protective mechanism is.

But on the other side of feeling what you have avoided feeling… is freedom.

Then you keep feeling and connecting your awareness to it.

Suddenly, you are not as afraid of feeling as you used to be.

You are not as afraid of others, now that you are less afraid of yourself.

Now the other half of your life—your consciousness—is online, invigorated, and alive.

In Closing: How to Integrate More Interoception

Integrating more interoception starts with the breath. At least, that is where I started.

In my day-to-day experience, I am consistently using my breath to help include my body in my awareness. I commonly notice stomach tightness, spots that itch, tingling in my feet. Sometimes my organs have sensations. I like to bring my full awareness to those areas in the moment so I can see if there is information I can work with immediately.

This touches on Traditional Chinese Medicine, which attributes emotions to sensations in respective organs. This is fascinating to me, and something I believe to be very true—which is why I am studying TCM to incorporate into my own life and into the way I support others.

So, breathing your awareness into your body is one of the easiest things you can do.

Another is formal meditation that is body-oriented—or breathwork.

Another is going for a walk and using the breath in tandem with your steps to help keep your focus on the body.

And then, of course, you can reach out to me or your local shadow work and breathwork facilitator to receive support in safely connecting your awareness to the feelings and sensations in the body—and then processing the emotions around that.

This should eventually give you the tools to work with feelings, emotions, and thoughts safely on your own, and in real time while operating in social contexts.

I’m more than happy to support anyone who is interested in becoming more interoceptive, because I believe it is so crucially important for experiencing the fullness of being human.

Thank you for reading.

Bless you journey <3