Interoception: The “Eighth Sense” and How Yoga Helps

This week, a student told me she struggles with interoception. Her honesty made me pause and dive in more deeply on what interoception really is — and how yoga may support it.

What is Interoception?

Interoception is simply our ability to notice what’s happening inside the body. It’s sometimes called the eighth sense.

It includes things like:

• Feeling hunger, thirst, or tiredness

• Recognizing tension, pain, or warmth

• Noticing your heart racing or your breath quickening

• Sensing emotions in your body — like a heavy chest with sadness or butterflies with excitement

Even placing your hand on your heart in yoga and noticing what you feel is interoception.

Why It Matters

Many of us spend most of our day in our heads instead of our bodies.

News, screens, and endless to-do lists keep our nervous systems “switched on.” When that happens, we lose touch with the body’s wisdom. Interoception helps us return to the present moment — to calm, safety, and balance.

In 2024, 43% of U.S. adults reported feeling more anxious than the year before (and the numbers keep climbing).

Psychotherapists are interested in interoception because patients can get stuck in having too many feelings, and talk therapy doesn’t always help. What does help is learning to be present in the here and now — and one of the main avenues for this is yoga.

According to trauma researcher Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, interoception can help the body calm down and come into the present. So, it can help restore an inner sense of calm.

What Shapes Interoceptive Awareness?

Our ability to sense and respond to the body’s inner signals doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Many factors play a role:

• Trauma: Trauma can disrupt brain–body communication. Some people feel cut off from their signals (numbness), while others feel overly sensitive to them. Both can make it harder to trust the body.

• Mind & Emotions: Stress, anxiety, and depression can blur or distort signals, while coping styles and personality affect how we attend to them.

• Culture & Relationships: How we were cared for as children and the messages we received about comfort, hunger, or rest shape how easily we connect to our inner cues.

• Health & Neurodiversity: Conditions like chronic pain, autoimmune illness, ADHD, or sensory processing differences can make body signals confusing or overwhelming.

• Lifestyle & Practice: Sleep, nourishment, hydration, and mind–body practices all influence interoceptive awareness. Practices like yoga, breathwork, and meditation create space to pause and listen.

✨ The hopeful part? Interoceptive awareness is not fixed. No matter your history, you can cultivate a deeper connection to your body’s wisdom with gentle, consistent practice.

Everyday Clues You May Struggle with Interoception

It’s common to miss or misread the body’s signals. You might notice it if you:

• Forget to eat until you’re starving

• Push through tiredness until you crash

• Only notice emotions once they boil over

• Feel easily overwhelmed by small body sensations

✨ If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not broken. It simply means your body is asking for more gentle attention. Interoception is a skill, and like any skill, it can grow with practice.

Interoception, ADHD, and My Story

For me, struggling with ADHD, yoga has truly been a lifesaver.

For much of my younger life, before I found these practices, I felt overwhelmed and disconnected from my body. That disconnection left me feeling anxious most of the time.

When I was introduced to Trager Mentastics, Vipassana meditation, massage, and yoga, something shifted. For the first time, I felt a real sense of well-being in my body — a sense I had never experienced before.

Mind–body practices are not just tools for me; they are essential to my well-being. They give me a way to anchor back into myself, to calm my nervous system, and to feel at home in my own skin.

Can Yoga Help?

Without getting caught in all the details, the general idea is that research shows yoga doesn’t always make us more accurate at sensing body signals. But it does improve our awareness of those signals — and that awareness is linked to greater well-being.

In other words, yoga gives us the feeling that we’re more connected to our bodies — and that sense of connection matters.

Interoception and Pain

Interoception can also change how we relate to pain. Instead of pushing it away or bracing against it, we can pause and get curious. What does this sensation feel like? Does it stay the same, or does it shift from moment to moment?

When we slow down and bring awareness to pain with breath and presence, we sometimes find that the experience softens. It may not make pain disappear, but it can help ease the body’s resistance and restore a sense of agency.

How to Practice Interoception in Yoga

Start small:

• Notice your breath rise and fall

• Feel your feet on the ground

• Place a hand on your heart or belly

• Pause and breathe when your body feels tense

The more we practice, the easier it becomes to listen and respond with kindness.

Try Yoga Nidra

If turning inward feels hard, Yoga Nidra (or “yogic sleep”) is a beautiful place to start. You simply lie down, listen, and are guided to notice different sensations. It’s interoception practice without effort.

Here are a few trusted recordings from Dr. Richard Miller (founder of iRest Yoga Nidra):

🎧 Yoga Nidra: The Art of Deep Relaxation (36-min audio)
🎧 Resting in Stillness (20- and 35-min practices)
🎧 42 iRest Yoga Nidra Meditations (full bundle)

✨ Yoga isn’t about perfection. It’s about noticing, returning, and reconnecting. Each time we practice, we learn something new about ourselves — and often leave feeling just a little more at home in our bodies.