What is Interoceptive Awareness + How it Helps You Eat Intuitively
What is interoceptive awareness? And how does it impact our ability to eat intuitively? Well, that's what we're going to be talking about today, so get excited! But really, practicing interoceptive awareness is such an important skill when learning (or re-learning as I like to say) how to be intuitive with food.So, interoceptive awareness is the ability to tune into your body. It can be tuning in and recognizing when your bladder is full and you need to pee. It could also be sitting still and noticing your heartbeat.Interoceptive awareness is what helps you to be able to practice intuitive eating by helping you recognize when you're hungry, when you're full, and when you're satisfied. It is the ability to recognize those little signals (or sometimes not so little signals) that your body is trying to tell you.In our diet-focused culture right now, a lot of us have lost the ability to tune into our bodies and tap into this ability to practice interoceptive awareness. And maybe that's something you're struggling with. Maybe you've found yourself, after years of ignoring your hunger or fullness due to some form of disordered eating, you don't even know what it feels like to feel those feelings your body gives you. Don't worry...you can develop your ability to be intuitive by practicing interoceptive awareness!
YOU CAN TRUST YOUR BODY'S MESSAGES
So first off, your body gives you certain feelings, certain signals, for a reason. It gives you signs that you're hungry such as lack of focus, a pain or emptiness feeling in your stomach, or maybe a headache. When you're full, there's regularly a feeling of satisfaction, of being done with a meal, even a noticeable change in how the food tastes in your mouth (ever notice that when you're full food typically doesn't taste as good as when you took that first bite?).But what happens with a period of time of restricting food or dieting is that you lose that ability to feel those signals from your body. Because you've been using outward signals with eating, things like calorie counts or macro counts or your weight to determine how to eat, you may have temporarily forgotten what it's like to tune into your body. Not to mention all of the messaging we get with diet culture telling us we can't trust our bodies. No wonder you may be having trouble tuning into your body.
HOW TO PRACTICE INTEROCEPTIVE AWARENESS
But, have no fear. Interoceptive awareness is something you can practice! And with practice, you'll get better at tuning into your body and cultivate more body trust!Give this a try...Sit in a comfy chair or on a couch with both feet planted on the ground. Take a big deep breath in, and as you exhale close your eyes. Take just a few more big breaths and gather your thoughts to focus, as best you can, just on your breath. Then, starting from your toes, scan your body, noticing how different parts of your body feel. Notice if anything feels uncomfortable. Notice how you feel sitting with your seat touching the chair/couch. Notice if you have a full bladder. Notice if you feel anything in your stomach...maybe hunger or slightly full? Remember here, though, to keep simply making observations *without judgment. Then, as you make it to your chest, can you notice your heart beating? If you can't, place one hand on your chest right over your heart and feel the rhythmic beat. And then, take your hand away, seeing if you can continue to feel your heart beating within you without that tactile connection.Practice this exercise every day or at least a couple times a week to help you get better at tuning into your body.
INTEROCEPTIVE AWARENESS FOR EMOTIONS
With practice, interoceptive awareness will help you also to notice if you're hungry or if maybe there's another need you have. If you've ever felt out of control with eating and found yourself eating for emotions, first off, you're not alone and there's no shame with that. Everyone eats for emotional reasons at times. But, what leads to this experience is often not fully knowing what your body needs. In that moment, you thought what you were feeling was hunger, and it was to an extent. But not a hunger for food. Instead, you had a hunger for something else to help you find happiness or another emotion. Here, interoceptive awareness would help you to recognize that you're not experiencing a body feeling and instead need to put some attention to the hunger your emotions are experiencing. I would love to hear your experience if you try this exercise to practice interoceptive awareness. Let me know in the comments below how it goes!And if you feel like you've tried intuitive eating and it's just not sticking, please reach out! You don't have to go through this alone. I work with women just like you who are sick of diet-culture ruling their lives and want to experience again what it is to live in food freedom! Schedule a discovery call and we'll chat!