KATRIEN’S VERSION
Interoception is the ability to interpret and Understand Your Body’s Internal States.
Like tuning the dial to create a clearer signal on a radio, the greater interoceptive sensitivity You have, the more clarity You have about Your current Phycical & Emotional States, the Causes that drive them and what behaviours would be best for Your Health given Your current position.
This leads to better Decision Making and Deeper Understanding of Supportive Behaviours.
In this way Interoception leads to better Health because You can make the right decision, at the right times and feel what kind of impact their having.
Interoception has different levels of sensitivity, thr greater the sensitivity the more accurate the behavioural adjustment.
In order to build EZ Water by Feel You need to lead with Your Body and Your Right Hemisphere.
- Start with Soft-Focus, Relaxed but very Aware, letting feelings bubble up.
- Become Curious. Look for Feelings that are Unknown, without categorizing.
- Do a Body Scan if nothing pops up. Depth and Surface Area.
- Commit to the Feeling. Zero thoughts, forget everything and feel. Like Cliffjumping for the first time.
- Categorize it and label it. Write it down if You want to. Use analogies instead of adjectives if You can.
- Repeat without searching. Let the connections unfold as Familiarity arises. Enter without prediction.
THE ARTICLE
Out of the Top 10 Sensations to feel I would rank the feeling of looking for a Solution to a Problem and finding exactly the Answer You were looking for as pretty close to number one.
Maybe number one is a bit of an exaggeration, but when every Checkbox that defines Your Problem gets ticked off and the Solution works like a charm when it gets put into play…
That feels smooooth.
Smoother than a Sleek, Slippery Seal Skimming the Sea’s Surface.
(Say that 3 times Fast).
But sometimes, when You can’t see the solution working internally, You don’t know if You are actually getting Results or if something else is happening and it just feels new.
This often happens when we speculate and is especially common for Biohackers, Curious Scientists, Somanauts, Self-Quantifiers, Athletes and Anyone who is generally looking for an answer for a Health inquiry and can’t seem to find one.
This leads to the practice that precedes the Research and when You end up landing on something that works it puts You Miles ahead of the rest who would rather wait for the hard evidence.
While certainty isn’t guaranteed until something’s been tested there are 2 things that You can leverage to give You some stable ground to stand on.
- The closer any Practice mimics how We Evolved the more likely it is to have a Positive Impact. - aka Knowledge of Humanities Past.
- Interoception - aka Knowledge of the Present, as in right Now.
And Now.
And Now.
Not a second Sooner or a Second Later.
In My Last Article I told You about 5 of the Fastest Ways to build EZ Water, Anytime, Anywhere and in this Article I’m going to teach You How You can Feel EZ Water Building in Your Own Body, How You can give Yourself exactly what You need when You need it and How You can become a Next-Level Interoceptive Interpreter who’s fluidity will rival Jack Jason’s.
But first I’m going to briefly review Interoception and Why it’s Important
INTEROCEPTION
Interoception is the Foundation of Independent Self-Regulation. It’s the interpretation of Your Body’s Signals tso that You can understand and regulate Emotional and Physical States. It is the Body-to-Brain signals that ensure Your Physiological Health by communicating Your Current State in any one Particular Moment.
Mediated by Interstitial nerves embedded in Your Fascial Tissue, each nerve acts as a conductor of information. 80% of these nerves are called “Afferent”, which means they transport Information from Your Body to Your Brain, rather than the other way around.
A classic example is Your Vagus Nerve, which under stimulation has been shown to up-regulate System-wide Physiological Function and Increases Adaptive Behaviour by enhancing levels of Interoception.
Vagal Nerve Stimulation is a perfect representation of the crosstalk between Your Fascia and Your Brain. Through this interconnected chit-chat Homeostatic Inputs are balanced, tweaked and regulated using Sensation & Emotion.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
You can view Feeling (Sensation and Emotion) as a Big Ol’ Combination of Hundreds of Inputs all bundled up into a compact, neat, little package gift-wrapped and ready to go. Inside, the package contains thousands of the little strips of paper that You find in fortune Cookies, all imparting wise and sage advice about Your Internal State of Health.
The Gift-Wrapped Box with the Bow on Top is the Emotion and what You Sense and Feel depends on whether or not You open it up and how many strips of paper You choose to read.
What You Sense and Feel then transitions to spur forth Changes in Behaviour and Influence Your Decisions.
The Feeling is the Experience, this happens first. What You interpret then shapes Your Behaviour, which is second. The cycling between the Two is Crosstalk.
In Interoceptive research the feelings are called “Somatic Markers” .
So in a Nutshell, the better You can Feel the more accurately You can implement supportive Behaviors and the better Decisions You will be able to make.
In fact, in one Study published in the Journal of Psychophysiology, they found when Individuals engaging in a task where the purpose was to win as much money as possible, (aka gambling), those who were better able to perceive their Heart Beat, (a common Interoceptive measurement), made more money than those who couldn’t due to their ability to make better decisions.
Antonio Damasio, considered one of the Pioneers in Interoceptive Research, conducted another study at the University of Southern California that looked at patients who had Brain damage in areas that bridged emotional sensation from the Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) with the Decision making Areas of the Pre-Frontal Cortex.
This Bridge is called the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex.
In Patients where the Bridge had crumbled they had no awareness of unconscious Body Reactions to terrifying images like Car Crashes. They recognized that they should consciously feel something but they didn’t because the bridge had burnt down disconnecting them from their Emotions and Interoceptive Senses.
Outside of the Study these patients struggled a great deal with even the simplest decisions. Choosing what Food to order when eating out became an overwhelming task.This simple correlation gave a glimpse into the Interoceptive processes that support Our Intuition and Our Ability to choose one thing over the other even when we can’t explain why.
THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF INTEROCEPTION
Even though Emotion and Physical States are intertwined, when learning to recognize Interoception it’s helpful to keep them separate and allow You to make the links on Your own later.
So for the Sake of Streamlining Information and delivering the Particulars I’ve compiled an Example List for You Below.
TABLE 1. Examples of Physical & Emotional Interoceptive Levels
These examples give You an idea of how Intuition is actually underpinned by some concrete Physiological mechanisms and it’s not just a magical, inner fairy-dusting, (even though it really is)
This is why Enhanced Interoception leads to better decision-making and better health.
Because You can give Your Body what it needs, when it needs it and You can confirm it was the right thing rather than guessing. Shooting in the dark and forming unintentionally, unsupportive Bad Habits like depleting Your Thyroid due to excessive amounts of Cold and Fasting or Developing Insulin Resistance through the Carnivore Diet and over-expression of Glucagon.
Don’t get Me Wrong, I believe it’s inherent that You back what You Feel with Data that confirms what is actually happening. And with the Explosion of Self-Quant Gear and amazingly Innovative Companies and Clinics creating some of the most simple and readily available testing kits and procedures that give You incredibly accurate and informative information, there’s really no excuse to get Your Thumb on the Pulse of Data-Driven Decisions.
However, I don’t know about You but I am not particularly attracted to the idea of being strapped up head-to-toe with the latest and greatesst in Scientific Technology for the rest of My Life walking around like a Cyborg.
Just like when You learned how to get up to Pee or drink Water when You're Thirsty, once You know the Feeling You don’t need the Data to tell You what’s happening anymore.
Besides simple check-in’s with tests and technology once in a while to make sure Your Par for the Course, once You become familiar with the Feeling You can tune in to Your Body’s frequency as it provides You with it’s own steady stream of information.
Secondly, there’s also some special cases where the Technology doesn’t exist or feel necessary but having the tools to create a deeper relationship with Your Body leads to a deeper fusion and a more intuitive experience when You’re in the Driver’s Seat of Your Life.
Not to mention You get to throw another arrow in Your Quiver.
Either way Your Decisions are not only grounded in knowledge that You’ve gained from a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO), but they’re also grounded in You and Your Experience.
And this is where Exponential Rates of Learning come from.
Plus, as a nice segue, this is the problem with EZ Water.
No wearable Detection technology so instead let's use this as the Perfect Platform for Your Interoceptive Success.
I’m going to teach You how to Enhance Your Interoception towards Building EZ Water.
HOW TO BUILD EZ WATER BY FEEL
In order to be able to get an idea of the sensation of building EZ Water You have to create a Space for Yourself that cultures Interoceptive Awareness. In order to do that You have to allow the Right Hemisphere of Your Brain to take the lead.
With Practice this becomes automatic but when You begin You may wrestle with the need to “find Meaning” or specifically search for something like You would if You were looking for Your misplaced Keys or Wallet.
Right Hemisphere Lateralization starts with decoupling the Left Hemisphere and becoming Mindful of where Your Body is. Mindfullness disconnects the Default Mode Network and Symbolic Interpretations of the Left Hemisphere so that Your Right Hemisphere can take the Reins and let Your New and Unknown Feelings unfold and open up to the light.
So here’s the steps.
- Become Aware - soft-focus
Create a Focus but a Focus on the Space that You’re in or that You hold within You.
This is Soft-Focus. Instead of narrowing in on one singular point like focussing on the tip of a pencil, Your focussing on the “Emptiness”, still focussing on one thing, but it’s a much larger area. Like trying to see everything all at once when You’re standing in a Giant Meadow.
This is called Soft Focus.
Here’s a couple Hacks:
- Resonance Breathing - (5-6 second inhale : 5-6 second exhale)
- Diaphragmatic Breathing - (Only Breathe into the bottom third of Your Ribs. Allow for 360° Expansion)
- Follow Your Breath - Picture it going in and out as an airstream
- Thought Visualization - Picture Your thoughts coming in and out of Your Field of View, watching them like:
- Leaves falling from a Tree
- Bubbles Floating Away (and maybe popping)
- Writing and then getting wiped off of a Whiteboard
- Body Part Focus - Temporarily focus on a Body Part (or Sound) until You relax. Then expand Your View
- Vagal Nerve Stimulation - (Smiling, Humming, Singing, Chanting, Gargling)
- Become Curious
Once You’ve established Yourself somewhere in the Ballpark of Soft-Focus, Your cheeks puckering a little bit means You’re on track and drooling is a sure sign! You’ll want to enter that Space curiously.
Back to our Meadow Analogy, just stand and actively wait, seeing or listening for what might pop up. Like a Butterfly flapping by, or a Deer flicking its Ear, the muffled Bee’s Buzz or a soft breeze that rolls across Your skin.
Once You’ve noticed a feeling:
- Look at it and Feel it while maintaining soft-focus
- Become curious like a Scientist or Explorer asking questions as if what You’re feeling is separate from You.
Separation keeps an Objective Lens preventing Your Left Hemisphere from labeling it and taking over.
It also switches on Your Awareness like Lightning and makes ist Playful, making the Experience very easy to retain.
This is what facilitates the Head-First Dive into something New.
- Body Scan - Place and Depth
If nothing pops up do a Body Scan:
- From Head to Toe. Starting at the top most fly-away hair to the dirt on the bottom of Your Feet.
- From Inside (The emptiness of You Digestive System) through each layer of Muscle and Tissue to Your Outside (Periphery of Your Skin and Hairs.
If You find something, go to Step 2.
- Commit to it.
More often than not this doesn’t feel overwhelming, especially in the beginning. It can feel faint and like You’ve got something but You can only hold it between Your finger nails.
A Breath of Wind could upset the delicate balance and You could fumble it and let ift fall.
And occasionally it brings with it something intense.
Either way forget everything, Soft-Focus and all and Just Feel.
No thoughts, No Questions, No Thinking, Just Feeling.
Everything You did before was filling a glass of Water, this commitment is You knocking it over and getting soaked. If You nail it the feeling should become very obvious. You’ll also have no explanations for it or have any idea of how long the feeling lasted.
But You won't forget the Feeling, just like no one forgets when Water spills onto their lap.
- You’re Finished
Now You can label what You remember, filing it away into Your Left Hemisphere.
The more You do it the more Familiar it becomes and the easier it will be to label.
- Repeat!
Do each one Separately.
Give some time between each so You can forget the experience and not carry it over.
Write down what You felt if You want, then make the connections later.
Once You can identify the feeling of building EZ Water remain Curious! Instead of looking for a Target, when You Recognize Familiarity let the Connection Unravel on its own. Eventually Your Body will tell You when it needs You to build EZ Water, just like telling You when You need to go Pee.
Once that point hits You can just let the Feeling Be instead of always being curious about it because now it's ingrained and recognizable.
A COMMON MISTAKE: LABELING
The Mistake: Deciding whether or not You're supposed to feel something and if You do whether it’s right or Wrong.
The Solution: Something is always going on, whether You can feel it or not is Your degree of Sensitivity.
Right or Wrong is Left Hemisphere activity in Nature and is influenced by Your current Belief System. Stepping away from Labeling opens up Your Drawing Board of Beliefs and allows You to create new labels of Right and Wrong by listening to what Your Fascia is communicating to You, rather than what You learned from someone or something else.
SUMMARY
Sounds pretty Woo right?
But this is a start to being able to tune into Your needs and enhance Your Decision-making Ability. (In this case around EZ Water.).
It can also feel silly because nobody else seems to operate like this on a daily basis so it feels like You’re an outlier.
And for the majority of Us, nobody ever really taught us how to do this because they never got taught either.
Therefore it doesn’t feel normal.
But Enhancing Interoception is an Evolutionary Adaptation that got lost during Industrialization.
Rebuilding Interoception allows learning to happen very fast. Instead of the requirement of repetition by the Left Hemisphere, new Neural Networks are remade in hemispheric synchrony, exponentially increasing learning rates and retention times (EASTEN)
When You build the connection on Your own, in Your own way, It leaves things wide-open and prevents the “skewing” of attention and sensation and allows it to become authentically Yours.
This often times creates moments of “Wrestling”, Frustration and feeling like Your always pulling up the Short Straw.
But this is the precursor to Eureka! Moments.
If You feel like Your drawing up nothing or Your frustrated, keep poking around, curiously, rote awareness gets rote results and frustration means Your Neural Schema are physically restructuring themselves to make New connections.
Once a connection is made, “Eureka!”, and You will never forget that piece of information again.
(unless of course You grow even further and the moment is no longer valuable to You.
That being said sometimes it’s nice to have guidance.
Below, a couple lines down I’m going to put what I feel when I build EZ Water.
I urge You not to take a look until You’ve found, defined and labeled a pattern for Yourself.
Here it is:
.
.
.
.
.
I feel an Opening, Expanding. Like tiny bubbles are Spreading apart creating more Space on the Inside. Or like folded Flower Petals unfolding in the Morning Sun at 4x the speed.
I feel it on the outer edges of My Body and in the deepest portions, skipping the middle layer
Kind of odd considering that EZ Water is actually denser than Bulk Water.
So there You have it! Give it a try and let Me know what You find? Where do You rank Your level of Interoception? What have You tried to improve it? Let Me know in the Intake Form below or reach out through one of My Social Media Accounts, I enjoy hearing Your Feedback!
