What 'listen to your body' actually means

If you've ever heard someone say 'listen to your gut' or had a meditation teacher guide you through a body scan, what they're referring to is interoception – our awareness of what's going on inside our body.

Interoception includes sensing your heartbeat, noticing fullness in your stomach after a meal, feeling that distinctive flutter in your throat when you're about to cry, or the tightness in your chest when anxiety arrives.

Some people are highly interoceptive. They can feel their pulse without checking, sense their digestion working, notice subtle emotional shifts as they move through their body.

But interoception isn't the only way to cultivate body awareness. And for many people – especially those dealing with trauma, chronic stress, burnout or neurodivergence – it's not the most accessible one.

This is why trauma-informed somatic work includes multiple pathways to perception and nervous system regulation. Each offers its own gifts, and each can be a doorway to the embodied wisdom you're seeking.

Let me show you all four.

Four pathways to body awareness

1. Interoception: Your inner landscape

Interoception is your awareness of internal sensations – hunger, thirst, heartbeat, the need to use the bathroom, emotional responses manifesting as physical sensations.

Interoceptive practices might include:

• Body scanning from head to toe, noticing areas of tension or ease

• Sensing your heartbeat without checking your pulse

• Noticing butterflies in your stomach or tightness in your chest when making decisions

• Feeling the wave of emotion moving through you before it becomes a thought

Why it might be challenging: For people who've experienced trauma, chronic illness, or learned to disconnect from their bodies as a survival strategy, interoception can feel overwhelming or even unsafe. If you're neurodivergent, you might process internal signals very differently or receive them more intensely than others. And for those accustomed to pushing through physical signals to meet external demands, tuning in can feel counterproductive.

If interoception feels inaccessible right now, that's okay. There are other doorways.

2. Proprioception: Your body in space and motion

Proprioception is your body's sense of where it is in space and how it's moving. It's what allows you to touch your nose with your eyes closed or know the angle of your elbow without looking.

I often invite clients to explore the difference between having their feet hip-width apart versus closer together, or to notice how their sense of stability shifts when they lean slightly forwards or back. What's fascinating is how quickly people can sense these differences, even when traditional body scanning feels inaccessible.

Proprioceptive practices might include:

• Noticing how the space behind your knees changes when you sit versus stand

• Sensing how shifting your head angle changes your alertness during challenging conversations

• Feeling how your spine responds when you imagine growing taller before a presentation

For people who find interoception overwhelming, proprioception can be a gentler, more accessible way to begin developing body awareness. It's often clearer and less emotionally charged than trying to sense internal sensations.

3. Exteroception: The world touching you

Exteroception involves noticing sensations from outside your body through your five senses – the texture of fabric against your wrist, how sound lands in different parts of your ears, the quality of light in the room.

These practices can be profoundly grounding when you're feeling anxious or disconnected. Try noticing:

• The way your clothes move against your skin when you breathe

• How sound travels through your body differently – does your colleague's voice land in your chest while construction noise hits your shoulders?

• The subtle temperature differences between your palms and the back of your hands

Exteroceptive awareness creates a bridge between your inner world and the world around you. It can be remarkably soothing and helps establish a sense of safety and connection without requiring you to dive into internal sensations.

4. Intercorporeality: The space between us

Intercorporeality is our awareness of other bodies and the connections between us – sensing the energy when someone enters a room, noticing how your posture mirrors or resists another person's, feeling the difference between being truly seen and politely ignored.

You might explore this awareness by:

• Noticing how your breathing pattern shifts around different people

• Sensing how your shoulders or throat respond in different conversations

• Observing moments of resonance or disconnection in group settings

Intercorporeal awareness reminds us that we don't exist in isolation. We're constantly in relationship, and our bodies are always responding to the energy and presence of others. For people in leadership, caregiving or advocacy roles, this type of awareness can be both professionally valuable and personally protective.

Which path to take?

No path is better than another. While somatic mentoring will generally seek to expand your capacity for body awareness, the goal isn't to become highly interoceptive if that's not your natural way of being. The goal is to discover your own unique doorway into embodied wisdom and to nurture that relationship with curiosity and compassion.

In my work with clients, I'm always listening for the pathway that feels most alive and accessible for each person. Some are natural body scanners who can drop into interoceptive awareness immediately. Others come alive through movement, environmental awareness, or noticing their responses to different people.

Always, we work at the pace of your nervous system, honoring what feels safe and supportive. This is especially important for those used to pushing beyond their limits or carrying significant responsibility for others' wellbeing.

The invitation

Cultivating body awareness is about developing a more curious, compassionate relationship with the intelligence that lives in your bones, your breath, your nervous system's responses to the world. We're not looking to achieve perfection, we’re practicing tuning in to what’s here.

Your body has been faithfully serving you, carrying you through late nights on projects you care about, supporting you through difficult conversations, celebrating your victories even when you were too busy to notice. It deserves your gentle attention and respect, whatever form that takes.

The invitation is simple: Begin where you are. Notice what you notice. Trust that your body's way of communicating is perfect, even if it doesn't match anyone else's.