top of page

Interoception Exercise

This exercise develops your interoceptive ability.


Since all emotion is physiological, and involved in the interoceptive process, awareness in therapy can develop faster if your interoception improves!

Please don’t judge your ability to do the exercise. The purpose is to gradually open the channel. Essentially you are making a request for (usually subconscious) information to be available to your conscious mind. Your nervous system knows how to do this, you just have to make the request with persistence and non-judgement.


Read through the exercise until you can do it without re-reading much. Most people find it easier to do the exercise with eyes closed, in a seated position. You can stay and play at any part of the exercise. Be sure to sit at least 15 seconds at each step.


1. Sit quietly and notice your breath. Don’t try to control it or do anything, just feel it bring air in and out of your body.


2. Notice the feeling of your heart beating in your chest. If this is hard initially, place a hand on your chest until you can feel it; then move your hand away. You might have to repeat this.

a. Can you feel the two separate parts of the heartbeat? Maybe, maybe not yet.

b. Can you feel the heart accelerate as you breathe in, then slow down as you breathe out?


3. Feel the blood surging from your heart out into your lungs (chest).


4. Feel the pulse into your throat and up into your head…. Your scalp…. Your face.


5. Now turn your attention to your arms. Feel the surge into your biceps, down to the forearm, into the hand.


6. Can you feel the pulse at your fingertips? Stop here and feel the heart beat in your chest, then a slight delay before it reaches your fingertips.


7. Return your attention to your heart beating in your chest. Feel the pulse surge down the big artery nestled along the inside of your spine. You may be able to feel a more general surge in your abdomen, which is carrying the blood to the internal organs.


8. Feel your pulse where the artery splits in two and passes through the pelvis on the way to the legs.


9. Focus further down to see if you can feel the pulse in your thighs, perhaps the back more easily since your weight is resting on the leg there.


10. Follow the pulse down the calf into the ankle. Be sure to take your time.


11. Now can you feel the surge in your feet? Your toes?


12. Stay with the toe tips for a minute, just feeling the blood surge through them.


13. Now focus on both your heart and your toes. Can you feel the heart beat and the small time it takes for the surge of blood to reach your toes? Take your time.


14. Now focus on your heart for 10 seconds. Feel your breath come in and out.


15. Expand your focus to your whole body. Can you feel your heart send blood to every part, sending oxygen to every cell? Sit with this for a full minute.


16. Return your focus for a few seconds to your heart and breath. Thank your heart for its hard work!


Good work! Remember to not judge your ability to do the exercise, even if you have done it many times before. Opening new pathways takes time and practice.


My suggestion? Practice often and remember that this is just one technique of many.

Everyone is different and responds differently to different exercises!




Related Posts

Yorumlar


Yorumlara kapatıldı.
bottom of page