The Mindful Migraine

I’m a blog-hopper as you all know – jumping from my blog, to yours, to newbies… and it was while I was jumping all over the place that I came across a new blog called: Unmasking Eve.

In the Welcome to 2025 blog post, there was a specific phrase that caught my attention: Interoception.

After the word was mentioned, the author had helpfully put in brackets: “picking up on your body’s signals.”

Huh.

I’d never heard the phrase before, and yet I’m all about listening to the signals your body sends you.

I’ve written before about whispers and screams, and the way that I read a free online resource and discovered I had a body that was more than just a stick to keep my brain off the floor. I’ve also written plenty about mindfulness in general and the need to be more self-aware…

…and yet…

I had never considered there might be a technical phrase for what this listening might be called.

When I went looking for more information, an Australian education website defined the term this way: “Interoception is an internal sensory system where the internal physical and emotional states of the body are noticed, recognized, identified and responded to.”

The website goes on to explain that we need interoception skills for life’s basics, including when to go to the toilet or realizing that you are becoming sad-or-mad and need to manage your emotions proactively.

If we DON’T develop these skills, then our brain has to work on overload all day to assess every situation, look for clues, analyze them, investigate options, then choose what to do next. [Or, I’m guessing, we miss the clues altogether and end up embarrassing ourselves one way or another]. The website noted that living this way can lead to exhaustion, anxiety or depression.

The page then goes on to provide heaps of helpful links for youngsters, teenagers and adults. Typical experiments you can try include sitting still and clenching / unclenching your hands, feeling the way they feel when they are tense versus relaxed, and really concentrating on different parts of your hand such as the webbing between your fingers. Or, stand up and adjust your weight onto different parts of your feet while focusing on what is (un)comfortable.

[I do this a lot when I experiment with Tai Chi moves in the morning – my feet really do hold a lot of apparent tension that is relieved when I sort of roll them around where I’m standing… not a very good explanation sorry… I’ll try to do a post about “foot yoga” soon!]

Whilst most of the websites that I visited were aimed at helping children – I’m going out on a chunky limb here and saying that we could ALL do with some improvements in this area.

Activities that were suggested to improve interoception include pointing to where on your body you feel hunger/sadness/guilt/anger, full-body-scans where your mind runs over your body categorizing sensations, but also mindfulness, breathing, yoga, and activities pretty close to what I call “feel your face” that reduce “pug-puppy-problems”.

Listening to your body is an important skill we can all use more and more.

When you roll your feet around do you notice that the heels are always more sensitive than the toes (or vice-versa)? Listen to the feedback and wonder whether you might need to improve your footwear or your stance.

Got a twinge in your back? Listen to your back! Stop what you’re doing and adjust your posture / activity / attitude before you do more serious damage.

Feel a new pain in your body that won’t shift after a few hours / days? Listen to this potential warning signal! Consider going to the doctor if you can’t think of any logical reason why it might be there.

Tummy clenching into a ball every time someone’s name is mentioned? Listen to your tummy! Then ask your head and heart what might be an underlying issue that causes this reaction.

Interoception sounds a lot like biofeedback – possibly just at the most basic level.

The websites suggest that most of us learn this skill in our youth and move on, taking it for granted.

Regardless – it doesn’t hurt to return to a state of innocence every now and then and consider re-learning the basics.

Bye for now – I’m off to curl my toes and flex my fingers…!!

Take care taking care, Linda xx

PS – just to confuse you even more – it turns out that interoception is only one of your EIGHT senses… yep – you read that right. I always thought there were 5 senses (sight, sound, smell, taste & touch) and a 6th one if you believe that little boys can see dead people. But nope. The 6th sense is vestibular (and maintains balance when we move), the 7th is proprioception (knowing where your body is in space, or where your hands and feet are without looking). The eight sense is interoception. Hmph! Now you know!

PPS – good luck Unmasking Eve; may your blogging journey be joyful! L xx