Your most underutilized resource

If you grew up in the West, you have been formed in a culture that prizes the mind, intellect, and so-called reason.

You have been taught to go through life relying on your mind to solve problems, communicate, and make decisions.

Very little attention is given to the body because Western culture simply doesn’t value it.

Our culture owes this value system to the remnants of dualism, which separate the body from the mind/spirit and prioritized the latter.

But what if the body contains clues and signals that are meant to help you solve problems, communicate, and make decisions?

That is exactly what researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and physiology have been discovering in the last twenty years.

The science of interoception studies how internal sensations in the body—generated in internal organs, muscles, and even our bones—travel via multiple pathways to a structure in the brain called the insula.

We all experience bodily signals, but some of us feel them more keenly than others.

Curious where you are on this spectrum?

You can do a simple check-in right now. Without placing a hand on your chest or resting your finger on your wrist, are you able to identify the instant when your heart beats?

If not, you may not have a highly developed sense of interoception.

“Why should I care about this, Audrey?” you ask. Good question.

Simply put, you are ignoring valuable information intended to help you navigate life.

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If you are a senior decision maker, and an analyst on your team hands you a data set with information that can help you make an informed decision, you would use it wouldn’t you?

That is exactly what your body is doing with the signals it sends to your brain.

And what is a bonus is that it doesn’t add to the cognitive overload you experience because of all the external information available to you.

This data is processed in your unconscious mind, thereby preserving your limited stores of attention and working memory for other uses.

However, if you don’t have an awareness of these bodily signals or what they mean, you are ignoring the wisdom of the body.

Interoceptive awareness can be deliberately cultivated, and the reason to hone it is that you will be better able to make use of your non-conscious knowledge.

You will find that you are better able to make sound decisions and better able to respond with resilience to challenges and setbacks.

You will be able to savor more fully the intensity of your emotions while also managing them more skillfully.

You will be able to connect to others with more sensitivity and insight.

Convinced yet?

If so, you may be wondering how you can begin to cultivate more awareness.

My favorite tool is a body scan. In a quiet, comfortable setting with closed eyes and feet on the floor, begin with feeling the body as a whole and sense the rising and falling of your abdomen with each breath in and out.

Then put your attention on each part of your body, starting with your feet, and slowly move your attention up until you reach the top of your head.

The first step is awareness of sensations in your body.

If you’re ready for the next step, it is naming these sensations.

Over time, you can cultivate the practice of a body scan to hone your sense of interoception.

As Bessel van der Kolk’s book title says, The Body Keeps the Score.

It is a practice of self-compassion to listen to the body and use it as your most valuable resource.

In closing, I’ll leave you with a quote from Irish poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue:

“It is a strange and wonderful fact to be here, walking around in a body, to have a whole world within you and a world at your fingertips outside you.”

How will you tune into your inner world to help you navigate the world outside?

Love,

Audrey