What If You've Never Been Taught How to Feel?

We're taught to read, write, count and solve problems. Hardly anyone teaches us how to feel what's happening inside our own bodies.

So a lot of us get by on guesswork. We notice tension only when it turns into pain. We notice stress only when we snap at someone. Or we feel a strong sensation and assume something must be wrong.

What is interoception?

Interoception is your sense of what's going on inside you: your heartbeat, your breath, hunger, temperature, tension. Researchers describe it as the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets and brings together signals from within the body.

It's a growing area of research, and difficulties with interoception are increasingly linked to a range of mental health conditions, including anxiety.

Feeling your body is a skill

Many people assume that feeling the body is natural and easy. It isn't. It takes practice.

When we're under long-term stress or overwhelm, some of us go quiet inside. You might notice:

• "I don't really feel much."

• "I'm completely disconnected from my body."

• "I only notice something when it becomes unbearable."

Others go the opposite way and become hyper-focused on every small bodily signal. That can be just as uncomfortable.

More body awareness isn't automatically better. What helps is the ability to feel what's happening without being overwhelmed by it.

A sensation isn't the whole story

Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett's research suggests that the brain uses past experience to make sense of signals from the body. The same racing heart can feel like excitement or like fear, depending on the context and what your brain predicts is happening. This is why slowing down matters. When you can notice the sensation itself, separate from the story you've attached to it, you get a little more choice about how you respond.

Where TRE® comes in

In TRE®, we practise noticing. Tension. Shaking. Breath. Warmth. Stillness. Nothing needs to be forced, and nothing needs to mean something. Sometimes the important moment is very quiet. You feel your feet on the floor. You realise your shoulders have softened. You notice a part of your body you haven't felt for a while.

That counts. It's a real part of the practice.

Try this

It takes about a minute.

1. Feel where your feet touch the floor.

2. Take one slow breath and notice where you feel it move.

3. Find one area of tension. Don't try to fix it. Just notice whether it changes.

That's it. Over time, small moments like this build familiarity with your own patterns, and familiarity gives you choice.

A complement, not a replacement

TRE® and other body-based practices sit alongside talking therapy and medical care, not in place of them. If you're struggling, speaking to your GP or a qualified therapist is always a good first step.

I'm running Nervous System Reset with Yin & TRE® at MoreYoga on Saturday 31 October (Clerkenwell) and Saturday 21 November (Canary Wharf). I also integrate TRE® into my one-to-one sessions and retreats. Find out more at whoislikemike.com.

Sources 

• Khalsa, S. S., et al. (2018). Interoception and mental health: a roadmap. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(6), 501–513.

• Craig, A. D. (2002). How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3, 655–666.

• Barrett, L. F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.