Did you ever wonder why some people are so much more in tune with their emotions and their bodies than others? Did you ever wonder how in-tune you are with yourself?
Interoception, otherwise known as your internal awareness is also referred to as the eighth sense, one that we’re a little less familiar with. It also tells us about our autonomic function, such as respiration, digestion, our heartbeat, and even our emotions. We have visceral receptors that are constantly giving us information about our internal senses, but often times we don’t listen to them.
At the most basic level, interoception allows us to ask the question, how do I feel? Am I hungry? Am I safe? or Am I full? Am I sad? Do I have to go to the bathroom? Being in tune with what is happening inside your body is an amazing skill to have and has been shown to improve emotional regulation.
Interoception helps us to be able to manage our bodies, listen to signals, and take action. Having this greater sense of internal awareness helps us to be able to manage our emotions as well.
We often tend to stuff our emotions and push them away as if they don’t exist. When we can be in touch with our own body, emotions, feelings, and be able to learn how to express them, we can have a better quality of life. This also decreases our risk of chronic disease and illness that is associated with not being in tune with all of those things.
So you may be wondering, how can I test my interception?
A simple heart rate test: You can do this by sitting in a chair with your arms down to your side.
Close your eyes or keep them open and without actually putting your hands on your body try to take your pulse. You want to attempt to sense your pulse, your heartbeat, for one minute.
After you record your number, then you will actually take your pulse. To do this, you will use your pointer finger and middle finger and put them on your wrist on the thumb side to feel your radial pulse. You can also use those two fingers and put them right behind your jawline to feel your carotid pulse.
You want to use very gentle pressure, and you should not need to dig in. Take your pulse for one minute and record your findings. You’ll wait two minutes, and then you repeat the test. Then, average the results of both the actual pulse and the sensed pulse.
Now to complete the following calculation:
1- ((Average heart rate – estimated heart rate)/ average heart rate) = _______
For your results: a result of .80 or higher indicates that you are very intercepted aware.
A score of .60 to .79 indicates you’re moderately self-aware.
Lastly, a result of less than .59 indicates that you have poor interoception.
Although this is not the only way to measure your self-awareness, it is a good starting point. If you find that you have poor self-awareness, that is okay. There are lots of ways that you can begin to improve your internal awareness.
Mindfulness is one of the best ways to become more in tune and aware of your emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, surroundings, and become present in your own life. Many times, we are anxious about the future or we may be depressed about the past, when in fact being present is actually a really wonderful place to be.
Hopefully, you will appreciate how important it is to develop and integrate these interoceptive skills in your life so that you can be fully present and enjoy everything life has to offer.
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