Body Signals, Trust, And Kindness
Interoceptive awareness is a term that few even know, let alone discuss; but it’s at the very center of so many peoples’ struggles with emotional and disordered eating.
In simple terms, interoceptive awareness is the ability to perceive and understand the internal sensations and physiological responses of the body. This includes sensations such as hunger, fullness, thirst, and fatigue, as well as physiological responses such as heart rate, breathing rate, and muscle tension.
What is your body telling you?
When individuals have a heightened sense of interoceptive awareness, they’re better able to recognize and respond to the needs of their body, while people with lower levels of interoceptive awareness don’t hear and/or don’t trust those very same signals. This variability can have a dramatic impact when it comes to food and eating.
Intuitive eating is an incredibly popular (at the moment) approach to eating that’s actually rooted in interoceptive awareness. It involves tuning into the body's internal signals of hunger and fullness, and eating in a way that is attuned to these signals. It also involves rejecting diet culture and external rules around food and instead, trusting the body to guide eating choices.
Yet, how can someone intuitively eat, if they have low interoceptive awareness and can’t hear or trust their body’s cues? The short answer is, they can’t (or it’s at least very very hard to).
Fortunately, self-compassion can be very helpful in increasing interoceptive awareness. When individuals practice self-compassion, they’re more present and mindful, making it more likely that they’ll tune into their internal experiences. Self-compassion also reduces the tendency to judge and criticize oneself. When individuals are overly self-critical, they may be more likely to ignore or dismiss their internal signals and instead rely on external rules or cues to guide their eating behaviors. Additionally, self-compassion helps reduce stress and anxiety – both of which tend to cause individuals to ignore or override their internal signals.
Survey results from my recent Transformational Eating™ class participants saw a material increase in their ability to hear and trust internal signals, as well as their ability to show kindness toward themselves. Students saw double-digit improvements in every measured category (e.g., self-kindness, mindfulness, attention regulation, body listening, trusting) across the gold standards of testing: The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness and the Self-Compassion Scale - Short-Form.
In conclusion, self-compassion can be a powerful tool for increasing interoceptive awareness and facilitating intuitive eating. By reducing self-judgment, managing stress and anxiety, and promoting mindfulness, self-compassion can help individuals to be more attuned to their internal experiences and respond to them with care and kindness. This can ultimately lead to a healthier relationship with food and the body, and a greater sense of overall well-being.