how yoga improves interoception
In this episode, we explore how yoga improves interoception - your nervous system’s ability to sense, interpret and respond to signals from inside your body - and how this awareness could help you build more helpful habits, plus:
How yoga gives us opportunities to practise notice, interpret, respond
What research on mindfulness and body awareness could tell us about interoception
Why noticing a sensation without jumping into judging it can - in time- potentially lead to a different response or outcome
How ahimsa, the yogic principle of non-harm, can inform the way we respond to discomfort other than defaulting to coping mechanisms (I see you doom scrolling, online shopping, and more 👀)
Listen next
Understanding interoception and yoga — our introductory episode exploring what interoception is and why it matters, listen here
all of yoga podcast - episode 69
FREE MEDITATION
Body scan for noticing sensation - an interoceptive practice
This gentle body scan is an invitation to notice what you can feel, without needing to explain it, change it or decide whether it is good or bad.
You'll be guided slowly through the body, exploring sensations such as warmth, heaviness, tingling, tightness, softness, pulsing, spaciousness and stillness. The practice encourages you to stay with direct physical sensation, rather than getting pulled into the stories, worries or judgements that can so easily accompany what we feel in the body.
Over time, this kind of practice can help train your attention to stay in the present moment and become more comfortable simply noticing what is here.
You can practise lying down, sitting, standing or even gently moving, as long as you feel safe and comfortable.
There is nothing to achieve and no particular sensation you are supposed to find. Simply notice what you notice today.
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how yoga improves interoception
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FREE JOURNAL PROMPTS
your free interception journal prompts
Interoception is our sense of what’s happening inside our body. It helps us notice signals such as hunger. Those signals can also contribute to our experience of emotions.
Your body offer you clues and signals and sensations, but it won’t tell you exactly why you feel that way.
Distraction, including doom-scrolling, can sometimes offer short-term relief, and there’s no need to judge yourself for doing it. But when it repeatedly takes you away from something that matters to you, noticing earlier may open up another choice. That’s the invitation in these gorgeous journal prompts - to notice, pause, respond…