You Know The Gut Feeling You Have When Things Go Wrong? It Has A Name: Interoception
Imagine a world in which our bodies had their own built-in health and wellness data tracker, which kept tabs on our rest, heart rate, and breathing, the way an Apple Watch would. No longer would we have to defer to our pieces of wearable tech to check spikes in our heart rates or note our sleep deficits the morning after a disturbed night of rest. Instead, our bodies would keep a score, that we could read ourselves, from our very own data store.
This isn't some Black Mirror futuristic vision, but rather the reality of a new frontier within mindfulness called interoception. You might not have heard of the term yet, but some of the wellness world's most prominent voices are extolling the virtues of this 'basic power of detection that we're born with,' including Dr Rangan Chatterjee who makes the case in his latest book, Make Change That Lasts, that interoception is one of science's most exciting new fields of research. 'Interoception is a sixth sense we are born with. It's not about us interpreting signals from the outside world but about the signals transmitted from our internal organs to our brains.' And it can help us carve out time to improve both physical and mental health in a world where external stimuli are often in overdrive.
FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE
Interoception is a way for us to 'train the mind and body to work better together, so we can almost hack the nervous system to induce calmness,' says science journalist Caroline Williams, the author of new book Inner Sense: How the New Science of Interoception Can Transform Your Health, who advises working on 'making friends with your body' through breath-focused meditation and mindful movement like Pilates, yoga and Tai Chi. In talking to experts for this piece I realised I had also practiced interoception without knowing. In a recent session, my therapist was encouraging me to ground myself when I sense that my inner child feels fearful. She advised me to close my eyes, focus on my breath, and to place my dominant hand on my chest, my heartbeat pitter pattering beneath my skin. 'In through the nose,' she said softly, her voice barely audible. 'And out through the mouth.' The exercise, I'd later learn, was a way of developing my own interoceptive awareness.
There are three main types of interoceptive signals: unconscious — heartbeat and breathing, for example, which happen most of the time without much awareness; conscious — which you can teach yourself to tap into, such as thirst, hunger or anxiety — and gut feelings, which are tricky to pinpoint to one particular area of the body but affect you anyway. 'These are things like how much energy you've got, and whether you feel like you've got enough energy to do what you need to do, whether you feel capable today and confident, whether you feel a little bit on edge, and you're not quite sure why,' Williams notes, adding that interoceptive signals are important because they affect how you feel, what you're motivated to do, the way you think and the decisions you make, but they're not easily quantifiable. And while we may have talked about 'gut feelings' for years to describe a sense of intuition, many people don't realise that they're grounded in science, which is where interoception comes in.
Breathwork exercises are a key part of building interoceptive awareness, although the critical difference between wellness-focused mindfulness breath work and interoceptive breath work is the latter asks that you apply your bodily signals critically to the knowledge you have of what's happening around you. Rob Rea, a breathwork specialist has seen a marked increase in clients coming to him for help with problems he has treated by helping them to become more interoceptively tuned in. He tells me about a client who's a principal ballerina at the Royal Opera House. 'Before she performs sometimes, we'll Zoom and she'll often tell me that she's in stress mode,' Rea explains. 'My job is then to regulate her nervous system. I'll ask her to look around the room and to tell me what she sees, what she's wearing, which colours she can see in the room. This is called somatic experiencing, which utilises interoception to gain awareness and insight of what's really happening in the body.' Rea then asks his client to tell him what she can hear and feel, and where the feelings are manifesting in the body. 'It can feel a little bit like a waste of time for people whenever they close their eyes,' Rea says. 'But it's only in getting in touch with what your body's telling you that you can really hear it properly.'
I recently shared a traumatic experience from my childhood with my therapist; her response, like Rea's, was to ask me how I felt, and where in the body the feeling manifested. In locating the feeling — which we uncovered as fear and shame — I was able to process it better, without becoming triggered by it. The exercise was a way of enhancing my interoceptive ability. When I thought about what I experienced as a child later that day and my heart started racing and my stomach sunk, I sat down, closed my eyes and allowed my body to metabolise the feelings that were manifesting in my solar plexus. It made me feel more in control during a moment that otherwise felt overwhelming.
An improved sense of interoception can have a transformative impact on a person's wellbeing. Research from 2013 found that good interoceptive awareness was what allowed 'intuitive' eaters – those who eat in response to physical rather than emotional cues and as a result eat only when hungry – to keep their weight down. 'That's something that's really important these days, because we live in the era of gym selfies, and young people are trying to live up to these unrealistic body images from the outside,' Williams says. 'And actually, if you feel your body more from the inside, then you like yourself more. You have less body image issues.' Another study from 2021 found that by training autistic individuals to be more aware of their heartbeat, stress levels could be dramatically reduced. After six sessions, 31% of them recovered completely from their anxiety, compared to just 16% of the control group. Interoception has also helped experts to understand why physical exercise can help relieve symptoms of depression. The fitter you are, the more active your heart is, and the more attuned you're likely to be with the body's muscles and organs. 'People who are very sedentary may have problems tuning into their interoceptive senses because they haven't experienced their heart rate rising and their breathing rate rising — they may not understand that that's completely fine and healthy,' Williams adds.
Being interoceptively aware is harder than it sounds though. Our increased reliance on digital devices has also impacted our interoceptive awareness. 'The digital ecosystem is set up to keep us online and to give us instant dopamine hits,' Rea warns. 'We're up against a very powerful beast that is training our brains to switch from one thing to another every 8 or 9 seconds. That's a huge change in how our attentions have shifted, so a large part of interoception is actually training yourself to focus and pay attention to what's happening in your body.'
It's something I remember the next time I reach for my phone and start doomscrolling. As my screen flashes through dancing, cooking and hair washing videos, I take a minute to stop and detect what the nebulous feeling of sadness is inside of me, and whereabouts in my body it's located. I sit in the sadness and do some deep breathing just like my therapist advised and I physically feel something shift. The more I do this, the more I feel in tune with, and ultimately in control of, my own body.
While the instruction to 'listen to your body' might have been bandied around in the age of wellness, it holds more weight, and scientific backing, than previously thought. Interoception is the sixth sense we could all tap into more. After all, everyone's body has something to say, it's just a case of tuning in more intentionally so that we can hear and understand it more clearly.
ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.
Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
13 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
I swapped my usual core workout for this 25-minute Pilates session — here's what happened
There are many training styles where working at a faster pace brings greater rewards, but when it comes to increasing your deep core strength, slow and steady wins the race. This 25-minute workout from Pilates instructor Nicole McPherson, who goes by Move With Nicole on YouTube, is the perfect example of this. It's a Pilates session where your core stays constantly engaged for long periods as you move through slow sets of exercises that will not only sculpt your abs and obliques but also build deep strength in your stabilizer muscles. As a runner, I'm always looking for sessions like this to help me maintain my form deep into longer training runs and races, but everyone can benefit from improving their core strength and the only equipment you need for this workout is one of the best yoga mats. The workout moves through a series of exercises to target the upper and lower abs, along with your obliques and deep core muscles. Nicole does the workout with you and provides advice on breathing as well, so make sure you can see and hear the video during the session. I gave it a go myself this week, swapping out my usual core routine for this slow and controlled session to see how it felt. Here are my main takeaways. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. I often go into workouts with the attitude that I just want to get through it, and end up rushing at times. With core workouts, that means I quickly exhaust my abs in particular and have to take breaks. I'm still getting a good workout done, but actually controlling my movements and maintaining a slow pace through the long sets in this session seemed tougher and also more effective. It maximized the time under tension for my core and pushed me to really engage the right muscles with each exercise. Don't be afraid to reduce your speed and let the deep burn come slowly. Nicole advises on how to breathe throughout each movement in the workout, and it's important to heed that advice, because I found it a lot easier to push through the harder sections when I was breathing correctly. It also helps you move at the right pace, moving slowly while you take long inhales and exhales, and lets you get deeper into stretches as well. I don't think this is a particularly beginner-friendly workout, because some moves require a fair amount of strength even to just get through a couple of moves, and there aren't really many modifications available for most exercises. If you're new to Pilates-style workouts, try this six-minute core session instead, or focus on building up your core strength in general before trying Nicole's workout. That goes for me too — I'd want to be a bit stronger before I did it again, as there were points where I had to rest for stretches during sets because I wasn't strong enough to maintain the movements. Along with the challenge to your core strength and endurance, this workout also requires some flexibility in your hips and legs I do not possess, which made some moves even harder. I already like doing a lot of yoga for runners, but clearly need to work on this more to get into a seated bend position or fully extend my leg above me when lying down. Pilates can be an intense workout that gets your heart rate up to burn calories, but that's not the case with this workout because of the slow pace you're moving at. I burned 52 calories in 25 minutes according to my Garmin Venu X1. It's a very effective workout for building strength, but if you're looking to burn calories, a faster training session like these HIIT workouts for beginners would be better.
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Tom's Guide
I walked 5,500 steps with the Apple Watch 10 vs Garmin Forerunner 570 — here's the winner
The Garmin Forerunner 570 is one of Garmin's newest AMOLED-screen sporting smartwatches aimed at runners. It boasts loads of training tools, Garmin's best heart rate sensors and a small smattering of smart features. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Series 10 is perhaps the best full-featured smartwatch on the market today. It's also no slouch when it comes to fitness and wellness tracking. While the Garmin Forerunner 570 is a tad pricier than the Apple Watch Series 10, both are well equipped to keep tabs on your daily workout efforts, whether you're a runner, walker, hiker or prefer the gym. Each watch sports an onboard GPS and the best holistic tech offered by Apple and Garmin, respectively. The question is, which one is more accurate when it comes to tracking a basic workout? I decided to find out. The Apple Watch Series 10 is my favorite full-featured smartwatch in 2025, sporting a thin and attractive design, gorgeous screen, endless apps and loads of useful onboard features. It's also a mighty reliable fitness and sleep tracker. The Garmin Forerunner 570 is one of the brand's latest smartwatches aimed squarely at runners and outdoor athletes, boasting Garmin's best holistic tech, excellent training and recovery tools, a bright AMOLED screen and a fun, colorful case design. For this walk test, I wore the Apple Watch Series 10 on my left wrist and the Garmin Forerunner 570 on my right wrist before setting out on my manually-counted jaunt around Seattle, Washington, on the longest day of the year. To keep track of my steps, I clicked an old-school tally counter every time my count hit 100 before starting over again at one. With my left foot taking only odd-numbered steps and my right foot only making even-numbered ones, I trekked three miles before ending tracking and examining the results. In addition to the manual count, I also recorded my walk using Strava as a control for distance, elevation and pace data. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. See all the results below: Apple Watch 10 Garmin Forerunner 570 Control Step count 5,568 steps 5,542 steps 5,500 steps (manual count) Distance 2.99 miles 2.98 miles 3.00 miles (Strava) Elevation gain 216 feet 207 feet 212 feet (Strava) Average pace 18 mins 23 secs per mile 18 mins 28 secs per mile 18 mins 6 secs per mile (Strava) Average heart rate 128 bpm 128 bpm n/a Max heart rate 163 bpm 164 bpm n/a Calories burned 437 calories 375 calories n/a Device battery usage 12% 6% n/a Both the Garmin and Apple Watch were within 100 steps of my manually-counted total, an impressive showing for sure! However, while the Series 10 overcounted by 68 steps, the Forerunner 570 only overcounted by 42. Strava, meanwhile, calculated my total steps at 5,548. All three devices measured roughly the same total distance covered and fairly similar elevation gain metrics. Assuming Strava is correct here, both watches are within five feet of the actual total. Pace data also matches up nicely across the board. It's worth noting that both Garmin and Strava offer two average pace figures, including a moving average and an elapsed average, the latter of which is reported above. Garmin's average moving pace for my walk was 16 minutes and 4 seconds per mile and Strava's was 16 minutes and 48 seconds per mile. Despite the Apple Watch being worn on my right wrist and the Garmin adorning my left, heart rate data is a near match between the two, though Apple calculated slightly more calories burned during my roughly 50-minute walk. Finally, the Series 10 burned roughly twice as much battery using its onboard GPS to track my trek compared to the Forerunner 570. Before acknowledging our winner, it's worth pointing out that both the Garmin Forerunner 570 and Apple Watch Series 10 did extremely well in this walk test, and I'd gladly reach for either before recording my next adventure. However, the Garmin Forerunner 570 officially takes the belt in this bout against the Apple Watch Series 10. The margin may be razor thin, but a win's a win. Which smartwatches or fitness trackers would you like to see me test head-to-head in a future walk test? Let me know in the comments below. Until then, get those steps in!
Forbes
2 days ago
- Forbes
Master The 20 Minute Workout With Cacti Wellness
Kira Jones cacti wellness Kira Jones knows that women want to take care of their mind and body, which led her to founding Cacti Wellness, a lifestyle brand with an app, web platform, and product line that offers fitness classes and a catalogue to help up your game on your overall wellness. Among the classes she leads, there are the Pilates Sculpt workouts, which are under 20-minutes, perfect for those who have 'the busiest of schedules,' she said. The productivity, wellness-focused app is designed to help maximize workouts without overcomplicating self-care. She first founded Cacti Wellness in 2020, out of the need to connect mental health with physical wellness. 'I was inspired by the correlation between wellness and productivity, and I wanted to create a brand that could help people perform at their highest level, both personally and professionally,' she said. 'It's a digital destination where you can learn to build solid habits and integrate them into your daily life.' Cacti bands event cacti wellness The 20-minutes or less approach to classes is meant for busy women on the go. 'It's not going to be the most intense workout you've ever done; but the accessibility allows you to create a habit,' said Jones. 'Consistency is key to making changes in your life.' The platform includes calming affirmations, standing exercises, an upper body workout with bands and Pilates classes, as well as meditations, breathwork and productivity workshops. It's for those of us who want to stay in on a rainy day or want to work out while traveling. 'The amazing thing about Pilates is that so many of the basic moves and exercises can be done with little to no equipment,' she said. 'Even if all you have is a hotel towel to use as a mat, you can still get an efficient and effective workout in.' The 20-minute workout is an ideal spot, says Jones, mainly because it's a small commitment that will still get you moving. 'Committing to 20-minute Pilates class at home is much easier than committing to a 60-minute HIIT class,' she said. 'Our content is stackable, so if you're someone that prefers a longer workout or meditation practice, you can always stack a few together.' Cacti Wellness Emma Cacti Wellness' most popular videos are the Get Ready Meditation, the 19-Minute Full Body Pilates Sculpt and the Positive Affirmations Meditation. 'To stay consistent with something, you have to actually enjoy it, so I'm so here for finding things we enjoy,' said Jones. Her latest obsession is exercise bands. 'I think bands get a bad rap because we've all been to a fitness studio where you're handed a rubber band that hurts your legs and rolls up the whole time you're using it,' she said. 'But when you think about the functionality of a resistance band, it's pretty incredible how much you can intensify movement or deepen a stretch.' She sells a line of The Bands, woven fabric resistance bands on her website in a neutral hued colorways. They come in a pack of three. While Cacti Wellness started as a fitness-focused brand, it has grown to become more of a lifestyle brand. Their next product launch is a Gua Sha made from Tiger's Eye stone. This Chinese facial tool gently scrapes the face. 'Each morning, I use my Gua Sha to drain fluid from my lymphatic system and de-puff my face,' said Jones. Next up, Cacti Wellness will add more 'Routines' to their app, specifically video bundles that focus on different needs, from manifestation to wellness while traveling. They also plan to expand their product line with new products launching in 2025. 'All essentials for your daily routine,' said Jones. Follow @cactiwellness on Instagram.
