How INTEROCEPTION Helps You Heal (Essential 8 Series – Part 8)
Episode 67: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
View transcript on Buzzsprout
If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your body or struggled to notice early signs of overwhelm, today’s post might reveal the missing piece in your healing journey. As the final installment of Amanda’s Essential 8 series, this post explores interoception—your ability to sense and interpret internal body signals—and why it may be the most important habit of all.
Whether you’re dealing with chronic anxiety, emotional numbness, or trouble with regulation, improving your interoceptive awareness can help you rebuild trust with your body and respond to stress more skillfully. This skill isn’t just nice to have—it’s foundational to healing.
📓 Download your Interoception Workbook! – CLICK HERE
What We Cover in This Episode
- What interoception is and how it supports healing
- How your insular cortex processes internal sensations
- Signs of weak interoception and what it means
- Practical steps to build body awareness
- Why regulation starts with responsiveness to your needs
What Is Interoception and Why Does It Matter?
Interoception is your ability to tune in to your internal cues—things like hunger, thirst, heart rate, breath, or emotional shifts. It’s how your brain and body stay in conversation. And without that connection, regulation gets harder.
Amanda invites listeners into a brief body check-in to illustrate this. Noticing tension, breath, or urges like hunger is a window into interoceptive awareness. If this feels hard or overwhelming, you’re not alone—and you’re not broken. Many of us have been conditioned to disconnect.
The Science: Your Insular Cortex at Work
The insular cortex is the part of your brain that interprets internal body signals. It connects sensory input with emotional and cognitive processing, helping you make sense of what you feel and what it means.
Weak interoceptive awareness is often linked to anxiety, low self-awareness, and even being overly empathetic (absorbing others’ emotions as your own). It can also contribute to struggles recognizing hunger, fullness, or emotional states.
This isn’t just about noticing symptoms. It’s about developing the skills to respond to your body’s messages with clarity and care.
The Interoception Disconnect
If you’ve ever felt like a stranger in your own body, struggled to notice hunger until you’re ravenous, or only recognized anger when it exploded into rage, these are signs of weak interoceptive awareness.
For many, this disconnection starts as a protective mechanism—especially in cases of trauma, chronic stress, or environments that made tuning into the body unsafe. Over time, we learn to ignore or distrust internal cues. But healing begins when we choose to reconnect.
The Cost of Disconnection (And the Power of Reconnection)
In today’s world of constant distraction, our attention is pulled outward, leaving little space for inward awareness. Combine that with body shame or emotional suppression, and it’s no wonder many people feel disconnected.
But the good news? Interoception is a trainable skill.
By practicing awareness of simple urges—like the need to pee, drink, or rest—you can begin sending safety signals back to your nervous system. It’s not about overhauling your life. It’s about rebuilding trust, one small cue at a time.
Building the Skill of Interoception
Amanda offers a practical starting point: pee when you need to pee. It might sound simple (or even silly), but honoring small bodily urges tells your nervous system: “Hey, I’m listening.”
Other accessible practices include:
- Eating when hungry
- Drinking when thirsty
- Resting when tired
- Pausing to check in with your body throughout the day
These small acts of responsiveness pave the way for deeper emotional awareness and regulation. And inside Amanda’s Regulated Living Membership and Restore 1:1 Coaching, these skills are woven into daily practices, live events, and personalized support.
Three Tangible Takeaways
- Interoception is the foundation of regulation. You can’t meet a need you don’t notice. Learning to sense your internal cues is step one.
- Disconnection often starts as protection. If you feel disconnected, it likely served a purpose. Reconnection can be safe, slow, and compassionate.
- Start small to build trust. Choose one physiological need to respond to consistently this week—and notice how your body begins to respond back.
Looking for more personalized support?
- Book a FREE discovery call for RESTORE, our 1:1 anxiety & depression coaching program (HSA/FSA eligible & includes comprehensive bloodwork)
- Join me inside the Regulated Living Membership, a mental health membership and nervous system healing space (sliding scale pricing available)
- Join my Release Class – Monthly guided nervous system regulation class
- Order my book, Healing Through the Vagus Nerve today!
- Download free resources here
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
