Interoceptive awareness, sometimes called the "eighth sense," helps us read our body's internal signals.

People with PTSD may show lower prefrontal cortex activation and reduced body awareness.

Films like 'Black Swan' and 'The Wrestler' show characters' bodies revealing pain before their minds do.

When we don’t have the words to tell someone what happened to us, our bodies just step in. For instance, when we are grieving, we might say, “My heart is heavy” because that is how it feels in our body. When you are anxious, you might say, “My stomach is in knots” because the feeling of anxiety lies in our stomach.

Feelings can be so intense that we experience the sensation in our bodies before we can cognitively explain them. In psychology, we call this interoceptive awareness — sometimes referred to as our “eighth sense.” It is how we understand our body’s internal physical signals (heartbeat, breathing, or temperature) when something feels misaligned.

In the book The Body........

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