Use Your Sixth Sense to Improve Your Health

We are all familiar with the five physical senses of touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste, but did you know about the sixth sense of interoception?

Interoception is a lesser-known sense which helps us feel what is going on inside our bodies.  We tap into our interoception sense when we feel if we are hungry or full, notice our digestive processes, or are aware of our breathing or heart-rate and even where we are feeling emotions within our body.  

Many of us are tapping into our interoception sense on a surface level, but with practice this sense can be developed to help really tune into feeling and understanding what is happening within the body on a moment-by-moment basis.  Like muscles with weight-training, our interoceptive sense can become stronger the more we pay attention and utilize it. 

For example, how do you know when you have had enough to eat? Most often, people say they stop eating when the plate is empty.  In one study, a ‘bottomless’ soup bowl was used to study how intake of food is related to visual clues. Read about the study here.

Some participants unknowingly were given soup bowls which ingeniously automatically refilled. Despite consuming 73% more soup than the control group, the “refilling bowl’ participants did not believe that they had consumed any more than the control group.  The cue for satiation seemed to be based on visual clues rather than any feeling of satiety. If their interoceptive sense was more in tune, they would have been more aware of a feeling of fullness.

Interestingly, people who’s interoception is low, who are not in tune with how their body is responding to the environment, also tend to have poor inter-personal skills.  They might not notice, for example, that another person has reacted negatively to something they have said. Therefore, strengthening interoceptive skills can help inter-personal skills as well. 

Our body is constantly giving us information about how it is reacting to the environment we are exposing it to, whether that is food, sleep, movement, stress, or relationships.  Interoception can help us understand those internal clues, allowing us to make adjustments accordingly.  

Most people are not utilizing interoception fully, but it is a sense that can be strengthened.  Here are five ways you can work on improving your sense of interoception:

1. While you eat.  Pay attention to how you feel when you eat to determine when you have had enough.  Eat slowly and chew throughly.  Stop eating when you feel full, rather than when the plate is empty.  

2. When you are feeling stressed, anxious or agitated.  Notice where in your body you are feeling the emotion.  Is it in your belly? Notice if you heart-rate or respiration have increased.  Try to focus on  pleasant memory, or slow your breathing down deliberately.  Can you change the feeling to make it less intense?

3. When you are in a rush.  Notice if you are clenching anywhere in your body.  Can you breathe into that space to encourage relaxation?

4. When you feel pain. Notice the pain and try to give it loving attention without judging it as good or bad.  Notice if this helps reduce the pain. 

5. When you are too cold or too hot.  Try to imagine a furnace (if you are cold) or a chunk of ice (if you are hot) in your belly and imagine your breath moving over that source of heat or cold. Notice if this helps change your body temperature to a more moderate level.

Give these a try over the next little while.  You’ll strengthen your sense of interoception and create more awareness about how your body is responding to the environment in any moment. The body is always talking if we only pay attention and listen. By improving your interoception, you can also improve your health!

I’d love to hear if this has helped you in any way and any insights you’ve gained. 

A great way to help improve your interoception is choosing to create peace and calm while you are eating.  HOW you eat can be as important as WHAT you eat.  I have a great resource for you to implement TODAY to help you become empowered in your health.  Click on the image below to receive it.