Listening to the Body |
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Interoception is the process of sensing, interpreting, integrating, and regulating body signals.
Interoception can be challenging when one lives with chronic illness.
Practicing interoception with attention to body sensations and emotions is key.
Interoception is “a set of processes through which an organism senses, interprets, integrates, and regulates signals originating from within the body (Locatelli et al., 2023).” We use interoception all the time. For example, we sense that our eyelids are heavy and a yawn is coming on. We interpret these cues as fatigue. We look at the clock and note the late hour, causing us to integrate our body’s cues with our knowledge that bedtime is approaching. We regulate these signals by winding down for the night and going to bed. Note that the chain of activity here operates almost automatically.
Unfortunately, interoception is not always that seamless, especially when we live with chronic illness. Let’s take a look at the various steps of interoception, what gets in the way of performing those steps, and how we can strengthen our interoception abilities.
Listening to the Body
For many people living with illness, the body is the site of pain and mistrust. Understandably, detachment from the body occurs with the attitude “I’d prefer not to think about my body at all” predominating. In order to strengthen interoception skills, we need to move from detachment to........