Neuroception, Interoception And Safety

Welcome to this Insight Timer live session on neuroception,

Interoception,

And safety.

Today I'm going to be weaving these nervous system concepts into a practice that is very usable for our day-to-day experience.

Our world can sometimes feel quite dangerous.

There's a lot going on in our world here in March of 2026.

And I found that understanding these concepts of neuroception,

Which is our internal radar that's always running,

Interoception,

Which is our ability to sense feelings in our body,

And safety,

They're all intermingled and they all come into this beautiful network that when we can be present with it can increase our felt sense of safety.

So the good news is we're doing this all the time.

We're using neuroception,

We're using interoception.

So an example of this is,

Where do you like to sit when you go to a movie theater?

That is,

You know,

We find our place where we're comfortable.

So I'm the kind of person that likes to sit in the back third,

In the middle.

Some people like to be on the aisle,

Some people like to be up front.

And so the next time you sit in a group or in a theater like that,

Notice what happens in your body,

As you settle into a group seating arrangement,

And why you choose the seat that you do.

And because there is a level of comfort.

Maybe you want to see the door.

Maybe you want to be close to an exit.

Maybe you want to see center stage.

And this involves this beautiful,

Elegant nervous system mechanism that is built into our system of neuroception,

Which is,

It's kind of like your computer program if you have a threat scanning program,

Antivirus program.

It's like that in our body.

There's part of our nervous system that is always checking and looking and sensing and listening to see if there are any threats,

Anything that we need to pay attention to.

And it's always on.

And we are often not aware of it because it's usually below the level of our awareness.

It's a more of a unconscious,

Subconscious body mechanism.

And it's always running.

And I noticed a big shift in my neuroception when we had the COVID shutdown back in 2020.

And when I did venture out,

There was a whole different level of awareness of space between me and another person and noticing how masks were worn and how I wanted to keep my distance.

And that was my neuroception at play.

My body got really good at sensing what six feet is.

And I could feel my body relax or tighten depending on how I witnessed other people sharing the space with me.

So that's our neuroception and it's going on all the time.

And our interoception is basically our ability to perceive sensations inside of our body,

As opposed to noticing the outside environment.

And so interoception are cues of thirst and hunger and discomfort and comfort and feeling settled and feeling constricted,

Tension,

Tightness,

Openness,

Relaxation.

All of those internal sensations that are so vital for the survival of our body.

When we need to use the restroom,

When we need to drink water,

If we're getting overheated,

If we're cold,

All of that is built in to our system.

And it helps us feel safer.

So safety is a biological imperative for our bodies,

And we are wired to focus on protection over connection.

So our bodies will always prioritize our safety first,

And then our connection with others.

It's just how we're wired.

And in my years of being a psychotherapist and talking with clients that have experienced trauma,

Safety is such a confusing word and such a ephemeral experience.

Many of my clients would say,

I understand the word,

But I don't know what that feels like to feel safe.

And I always like to say safe enough now,

Because there's never any guarantee for absolute consistent safety all the time,

Everywhere.

It's just not possible.

But even safe enough,

How do you know when you feel safe enough?

That is an experience that is challenging for so many people.

And if you're part of a minority group in our country,

Wherever you live,

That also exacerbates your sense of danger or threat,

Because your safety is not guaranteed at all.

And so there's more vigilance,

There's more perceiving and looking for what could be harmful.

And therefore,

We can't relax.

So when our system feels safe and settled,

We can learn,

We can grow,

And we can heal.

And so for me,

Safety is such an important quality of life that I try to nurture and cultivate.

We look for safety in three different dimensions.

So we look for safety in our external environment around us.

We look for safety within us,

Right within our body.

When we wake up and we haven't slept well,

We don't feel quite right.

We don't feel quite as present and ready.

So we don't feel quite as safe.

And then we look for safety between.

So we're looking for safety without,

Within,

And between.

And so these are three powerful realms where we can practice being aware of our level of safety in any given moment.

And to examine or to look for,

Be aware of our external safety in our external environment we use our five senses,

Our vision,

Our hearing,

Taste,

Touch,

Smell.

All of that goes into our assessment of our perceived safety in the moment.

I was sitting outside a couple of days ago and we have a beautiful pear tree that is blooming and the fragrance is really,

Really strong.

And as beautiful as it was,

You know,

I could tell the fragrance with my senses,

My nose.

And then I started getting congested.

It was too much.

And so my body was responding to that external cue by closing down my nostrils with congestion and stuffiness.

And I finally had to go inside because it was too much.

And so my body was working to keep me safe by noticing the fragrance cues,

By noticing my body internal reaction to that,

And then mobilizing me to take care of myself.

So that is just a really simple example of how these,

You know,

Capacities and um,

Tools of our nervous system help us stay in equanimity and balance in homeostasis.

When we check in with our safety within our own bodies,

We use the felt sensations.

So this is proprioception,

It is sensing pain,

Sensing comfort,

That okayness.

And often we use neuroception and interoception,

They play together.

Because sometimes we get a gut feeling of a certain situation or a person.

And we're picking up lots of cues.

But our body,

Our internal sensations is,

Oh,

My gut is off.

Oh,

I don't have a good sense about this gathering or this person,

I need to move away.

Um,

This doesn't feel right.

And so that gut intuition,

That gut instinct is also part of this nervous system safety system that we have.

And then our safety between,

Right,

We use neuroception,

Again,

To notice cues of the person or the animal that we're with.

And we're looking at posture,

We're listening to tone of voice,

All of those sensory cues that we take in,

As well as our gut feeling,

Helps us understand whether we can be open and curious and interactive,

Or if we need to be more boundaried,

Or if we need to leave.

And so proprioception and interoception are a little different.

Proprioception is a skill within our body,

Our musculature and our bones,

To let ourselves know where we are in space.

So it's more of that,

Am I upright?

Am I lying down?

Am I on my side?

How am I negotiating my body?

In space,

Right?

It helps us walk to know where we put our feet.

So proprioception is also very important in our engagement with our world.

Interoception is a bit broader,

Because we're noticing there's this tension in my shoulder,

Or my gut doesn't feel right today.

It's a little off.

I wonder what I ate yesterday.

So it's a little more organ focused,

As opposed to body position.

But they all help us sense our place in this universe.

One other component before we do our practice is,

Neuroception can become skewed over time,

Depending on our experiences.

So when we experience something traumatic,

That can alter our neuroception.

So COVID,

In some sense,

Altered our neuroception,

Where we were perceiving safety in a different way.

If you've ever been in a car accident,

Your perception of certain intersections of the flow of traffic in a certain way,

Is going to be altered.

And what our bodies typically do is our amygdala overgeneralizes.

The more challenging,

Overwhelming,

Or traumatic experiences we have,

We begin to overgeneralize.

So for example,

If you've had a car accident,

Maybe you get nervous going through that same intersection in the weeks after the accident.

But then maybe,

All of a sudden,

It's like,

Well,

A red car hit me.

And now you're noticing anything red that feels dangerous to you.

And then it was,

You know,

A certain type of car.

So now all the cars that look similar,

Even if they're different colors,

Feel threatening to you.

And so when trauma,

When our perceptions expand like that,

Our world can become smaller,

Because it feels like there's more threat.

And with proper tending,

That neuroception that's been faulty,

Can reorganize and come back to the pre-accident level.

So our nervous system is flexible and fluid and can change over time,

Thank goodness.

And so all of those perceptions,

All of those experiences of overwhelm,

And trauma,

And cultural oppression,

And,

You know,

Race and gender issues,

All of those go into our biology to help us assess our safety.

So,

The more that we know about how we perceive,

And how we interpret the sensations we feel,

Can help us come back to the present moment.

Because the key takeaway here is safety is experienced in the moment,

Not in the future,

Not in the past.

It's a present moment experience that we have to come back to again,

And again,

And again.

All right,

So I've been talking for a long time.

So I'm going to read you two poems today,

One at the beginning and one at the end.

And both by Rosemary Watola-Trommer,

And they tie into this mindful awareness of our present moment,

Which is our neuroception and our interoception.

So you can settle into a posture that you want to use for practice.

This poem is entitled Practicing Presence.

And this too,

This calling of chickadees,

And this too,

The buzzing of flies,

And this too,

This memory from last year,

And this too,

This tending to right here.

And this too,

This softening of my jaw,

And this too,

This ache in my gut,

And this too,

This turning toward now,

And this too,

This reaching for more,

And this too,

This throbbing tenderness,

And this too,

This,

All of this,

And this too,

This,

Only this.

And so as we arrive into noticing all of this,

We're going to be practicing orienting,

Which is attending to our external environment through our neuroception.

We're going to begin with an eyes-open practice.

And so as you look around your present moment environment,

Just notice,

Be curious about what you see.

And remembering that turning your eyes and turning your head activates the vagus nerve,

Right?

It puts pressure on the nerve that runs through the vagus nerve.

It runs down the side of the neck.

So we're using our vision to bring us into the present moment.

And you can be mindfully curious about if you have any commentary about what you're looking at.

And you might notice,

Oh,

My God,

That's a mess over there.

I need to clean that.

And if that's happening,

Just say,

That's just a thought right now.

I'm just going to take in information through my eyes.

And what is it that I notice?

And is there anything that is pleasing or beautiful,

Any colors or shapes?

You might see some textures that you kind of sense in your body.

And then bringing hearing on board,

Just notice the sounds now in your environment.

I'm not sure if you can hear this,

But there's a lot of crows outside that are squawking.

Some of you may wish to close your eyes so that you can hear better.

And you might hear sounds around you from your refrigerator or traffic or other people or animals.

You may hear pulsation in your ears from your heartbeat.

And then bringing on touch.

So noticing your back up against your chair if you're sitting,

Feeling your feet where they're positioned.

And you'll notice that touch often kind of is very similar to interoception,

Right?

We're feeling this boundary at the skin level that sometimes can go inside of our body.

Right,

We're feeling warmth,

Maybe or texture of our clothes.

And then adding on fragrance and taste.

Those are two sensory doorways that are not often as powerful.

Sometimes they are,

But they're a little more subtle for most people.

Notice any sensations in your body right now.

What's happening as you are literally orienting,

Sensing yourself through these external cues into this present moment?

This is this arrival practice.

I'm coming into the present moment.

You may also notice it's not easy to keep our attention in this present moment,

Even though our body is always here.

And this is a cultivation practice that we're doing.

So your ability to be present through your senses,

This embodied presence,

It grows with practice.

And you might find that you have a particular sensory doorway that is more comfortable or more dominant.

We all have that.

For many people,

It's usually sight or hearing.

But some of you may have fragrance,

You know,

Smelling or tasting.

Now,

We're going to shift our attention from our external environment to our internal landscape and bring on the skill of interoception.

This is common in mindful practices of noticing what's happening inside of your body.

That is using interoception.

Maybe there's an ache or area of tension,

Or maybe there's a softening or a sense of expansion.

And be curious as to what you attend to first.

As you get the felt sense of your internal body landscape.

Usually,

What speaks the loudest in our bodies is discomfort,

Aches,

Pains,

You know,

Changes in posture.

And that's how we're wired,

To pay attention to that which could be difficult or that needs attending.

But if you can,

In spite of any pain or discomfort,

See if you can also notice sensations of calm or settledness or areas in your body that are not in as much discomfort.

The gift of this skill of interoception is profound,

Because once we can sense into our body,

We can then expand and deepen that skill to notice what happens in the body when we have an emotion.

Oh,

If I'm afraid,

What that changes my interoception.

What is the sensation I feel that I'm labeling afraid?

What is the sensation internally of joy,

Or of peace,

Or of sadness?

So all of a sudden,

We begin to integrate our emotional states with our body and notice the interplay between our emotions and our body.

We can also do the same with thoughts.

When I think a negative thought,

Or if I have an inner critic experience that's berating me,

It changes my physiology and it changes my interoception of my body.

I get tight,

I may feel disconnected from my external world,

My body might tense up.

And so as we begin to get more embodied through our senses coming from the external world and noticing our internal sensations,

We go deeper in understanding how our mind and emotions affect our body and how our body affects our mind.

And we will grow in discernment.

So if I'm out and about and I get queasy in my belly,

I don't then automatically say,

Oh,

I'm sick,

Or maybe a thought comes,

Oh,

I'm anxious.

But then I can say,

Okay,

Let me look around,

Let me use my neuroception.

Am I okay right now?

Oh,

I'm okay right now.

Oh,

And there's still this tummy ache kind of sensation.

Let's explore this more,

Right?

We begin to give time and space and have less jumping to conclusions about our place in the world.

And this last perceiving of safety,

This safety between you and me,

You and others,

This is also so needed in this time in our world of how do we use neuroception and interoception to feel connection with others.

And interoception helps us connect within our own bodies.

And we can use that and neuroception to assess,

Is this person okay to be around?

Can I pet this dog on my walk?

What is happening in this world of between me and you,

And how can I be present and make a clear and accurate assumption or assessment of am I okay right now?

On my morning walk today,

I go past a horse and I went over to the fence to pet him.

And he was not having it because I did not bring a carrot.

And so he was nipping.

And so this relational dynamic between me and this very large horse was I,

You know,

It wasn't right.

So it's like,

Well,

No,

I'm not going to keep trying to pet you if you're trying to constantly nibble at me.

And so I wish you a wonderful day,

Dear horse.

Right,

So that's sometimes the interaction.

And in that moment,

My body was using neuroception to assess my safety.

Interoception,

How close to the fence do I get?

What's happening in my body?

And then the decision to move closer or farther away,

Or to remember to bring a carrot on my next walk.

And too often in our world today,

We go by past experience or future expectation of how how someone how safe someone is in the moment.

And we're not present.

And when we can be grounded and embodied within ourselves,

We actually offer a level of safety to the rest of the world that can be very healing.

When I am here and present and understanding of what I'm taking in from the world and what I'm feeling inside of me,

I can be fully here with you.

And again,

That's a skill that we cultivate over time.

The last bit of this practice that I wanted to do with you today is to see if you can be curious if there is a safe enough place inside your body.

Some of you may not find it inside,

Especially if you deal with chronic body conditions.

But is there a sanctuary of refuge or peace within your body that you can locate for today?

It may change tomorrow.

But right now,

Where is that?

And if being in your body is difficult,

Imagine a place or an external environment that you can remember and hold as a safe enough place for you.

Making it very sensory will deepen this experience in your nervous system,

Noticing place and where it is,

How much space it takes up in your body.

If you're in an external environment,

Is there a tree or water?

Learning to be present and notice cues of safety is vitally important in our world today.

So as we bring this practice to a close,

Remember that every single being on this planet is looking for safety,

Is longing to be connected,

To be safe enough,

To be authentic and relaxed and present when we interact.

And so just like me,

Everyone is wanting to be safe enough.

And I'll close with another poem from Rosemary entitled,

She Couldn't Have Planned It This Way.

To arrive right here on this February morning with the wind gently shaking the dried grasses of the field and the chickadees flitting up and down the empty cottonwood branches and the river barely a whisper beneath the ice.

But all of it,

Since long before her birth,

Has led her to this moment of winter sunshine warming her cheek at the same time she feels the tight clench in her chest that has not released for a week.

Hello,

Clench.

Of course,

It is here,

The anger,

The fear.

What is here?

What else is here?

Today,

She opens to touch it all the way a child might touch both a smooth stone and a thorn.

More truly,

She is touched by the world.

Already,

This moment is different from the moment before.

And right now,

She is here for it.

For the ache,

For the birds,

The cloudless blue sky.

All unfolds as it will.

She feels her own unfolding,

Too.

Opening to the surprise that though unplanned,

This moment could not have been otherwise.

Rosemary Wetola Trommer Thank you all for your practice today.