09/01/2026
summer read 🌞📕
Have you considered the idea of reading your body or perceiving its’ constant release of messages and signals.
This roughly defines a concept known as interoception, introduced into medical realms in 1906. Developed further over the years, in terms of body work and healing, interoception involves:
🫀The visceral experience of feeling something in the body; muscle contracting, heart beating, stomach grumbling.
👐🏾 The motivation to act based on the visceral feeling.
😶The effect of that visceral experience on our mood and emotions.
Learning to notice the experiences of our body has therapeutic value.
In a yoga class, interoception may become a focus for participants- and there may be some emotional content associated with the body experience, which can be of value as one comes to understand and truly embody them self. There is space for interpretation of what these emotions mean when attached to the body experience.
Chronic pain and addiction often share the same root: a disconnected inner body sense, otherwise known as disrupted interoception.
In the book Inner Sense, Caroline Williams explains how pain can blunt interoception — the brain’s ability to accurately read signals from inside the body. When this happens, the nervous system struggles to tell the difference between discomfort, danger, and relief.
⚠️ Pain becomes louder, and substances or behaviours that temporarily change body sensations can feel like relief.
From an alternative healthcare perspective, this is why healing isn’t just about painkillers or willpower. It’s about retraining the brain-body feedback loop 🔁
🐌 Slow breathwork, somatic awareness, gentle movement, and nervous system support help restore the body’s ability to sense safety and balance again.
With Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, the work may be to strengthen the visceral, non emotional aspect - simply to notice rather than analyse (Trauma-Sensitive Yoga in Therapy, D. Emerson).
“The system of interoception as a whole constitutes the material me and relates to how we perceive feelings from our bodies that determine our mood, sense of well-being and emotions” -Clare Fowler, 2002.
