Are your emotions never far below the surface?

Do you fear that people think less of you because you “want too much” or get hurt “too easily”?

Do “phony” or superficial conversations and behaviors drive you crazy but also make you feel bad because you never simply fit in with the crowd?

Do you sometimes wish you didn’t feel as much as you do?

If this sounds like you, you may have suffered a lot of judgment from others. People who are very feelingful often get a lot of negative labels placed on them. They’re “irrational,” “immature,” “childish," “overly sensitive,” or “just too much.” They may read or may have been told that their “overreactions” are the result of unresolved trauma, which may be partially true, but that still suggests that their emotional nature is a problem that needs to be therapy-ized into calmness.

But what if your strongly emotional nature, despite the problems it can cause, isn’t a deficiency or defect, something “broken” about you? What if it’s a gift that needs to be developed, like a great mind or a musical ear?

It could be that most people who are extra-emotional were born with an exceptionally high level of acuity to a sense that few people have ever heard of, but is absolutely vital to our very survival.

That sense is called interoception.

Everyone’s heard of the five external senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. But few have learned about interoception, the amazingly intricate........

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