How I Feel – Episode 6: Improving Interoception and Mindfulness
In today’s video, we answer the common question, “can interoception be improved?” And the good news is, yes! Interoception can be improved, a fact backed by plenty of research. It is true for almost everyone that we can do things to enhance our interoceptive awareness or the awareness of feelings coming from inside of our bodies.
What Is the Significance of Mindfulness in Interoception?
One of the most well-established methods to help improve interoceptive awareness is mindfulness. You might already be familiar with this word; mindfulness means “being able to pay attention in the present moment in a specific way.”
INTEROCEPTION AND BODY MINDFULNESS
When we discuss mindfulness and interoception specifically, we focus on paying attention to the body in a certain way. Mindfulness can be challenging, mainly because it’s an abstract concept. Paying attention to the inside of your body mindfully is hard, especially when it’s something you can’t see, and, for many, it’s something you can’t feel.
So how do we make the concept less abstract? We work to make mindfulness more concrete. We help people learn to be more mindful and present in their bodies and pay more attention to their internal body signals. There are also methods to learn how to link body signals to the emotions they are experiencing. These exercises help build body-emotion connections that we’ve discussed previously and that you will find more information about in our upcoming video content.
Until then, check out our Interoception Curriculum Master Bundle or other resources for practical adapted body mindfulness strategies.
IC Master Bundle; If you need ideas on how to adapt traditional mindfulness to make it more accessible for the clients you support, check out the many forms of adapted body mindfulness included in the Interoception Curriculum Master Bundle