"Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are." - Chinese proverb
When he was young, my son was constantly tripping, bumping his head, falling off scooters, crashing into furniture. Once when he fell off his bike (a regular occurrence), he got his foot so entangled in the bike chain that my husband had to take the bike apart to get him out from under. I seriously considered taping him in bubble wrap. Things changed the summer when he was 8 and joined the swim team. The boy we watched swimming in the water was completely different from the uncoordinated disaster we worried about on land. What changed? Whereas on land he had no sense of what his body was doing, the water gave him sensory feedback which enabled him to move fluidly. In technical terms, the water provided proprioception—it gave him information about where he was in space.
Proprioception is referred to as our “sixth sense”, providing necessary feedback about our body’s position relative to our surroundings which we use to make necessary postural adjustments to maintain our balance. Working like our other senses—seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch—it sends messages to the brain about our environment. When we move, the body gathers information through proprioceptors, which are myelinated mechanoreceptors located in the skin, muscles, tendons, and joints that sense our position in space. The brain uses information from the proprioceptors to move the body appropriately in the space around us and to react quickly to changing conditions. This process works largely outside of our awareness and allows for the smooth execution of movement. Athletes have a finely tuned proprioceptive ability, which is why they seem to move so effortlessly. It is a fast-reacting system--think of your reaction when you unexpectedly step on an icy patch—your muscles tense, arms lift, and you immediately slow your gait to a shuffle. Given the number of obstacles in our environment, proprioception is essential to keeping us safe.
We tend to overlook proprioception as an important part of our health, but it is just as essential as the other five senses in that it keeps us upright, enabling us to walk on uneven surfaces, safely navigate stairs, and avoid a serious tumble when we trip over the edge of an area rug. We are all born with varying amounts of proprioceptive sensitivity. It is more active when we are younger but becomes blunted with extended periods of sitting or a lack of flexibility. The good news is that it can be trained, especially when we move our bodies in different directions through space, using novel movement patterns. Yoga, which moves the body in all directions, has been found to be an excellent way to improve proprioception. Activities such as dancing, martial arts, fencing, and boxing also help to train this system.
Whereas proprioception is our ability to maintain our position in space, interoception helps us recognize and respond to bodily sensations. Unlike the fast-acting communication process of proprioception, most of interoception is governed by low-threshold unmyelinated mechanoreceptors which are slower in sending messages to the brain. Interoception uses feedback from the viscera to provide the brain with information related to our physiological states. It tells us when we’re hungry, thirsty, hot or cold, in pain, etc. Some of these processes can be regulated outside of our awareness, but many are dependent on our conscious efforts to take appropriate action to return the body to homeostasis.
In addition to regulating basic physiological processes, interoception is essential to our ability to recover from stressful events. Awareness of an elevated heart rate can guide us to slow our breathing patterns to decrease the stress response when it is in overdrive. Interoception has also been shown to influence memory retrieval, decision making, and other cognitive processes. Because interoceptors transmit information more slowly than proprioception, our response may not be immediate, such as when we ignore hunger signals for too long and start to feel sick or dizzy. Chronically tuning out signals, such as when we ignore pain or tension in the muscles, can lead to serious injury or movement dysfunction over time. Some research links low or blunted levels of interoception with the incidence of chronic disease, showing that ignoring body signals can, over time, set us up for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and even osteoporosis.
Proprioception and interoception are part of a broader process known as body regulation which has been identified as an essential skill for promoting well-being. Body regulation is defined as our ability to notice, identify, and respond skillfully to sensory information. It is our sense of attunement with the body, reflecting a sensitivity to our physical needs. Body regulation is what helps us to regain our balance quickly when we trip, notice and then release tension in our shoulders, stop eating when we are full, or purposely slow our breathing patterns to promote calm. Evidence shows that the stronger our attunement with our bodily processes, the better we become at meeting our needs, resulting in a greater sense of ease in life.
We are hardwired for body regulation but live in a culture that can easily hijack this skill. Our environment sends subtle messages that encourage us to override our body’s signals. The fitness and weight loss industries are the worst offenders, consistently sending messages that pain and discomfort are necessary for progress. Messages such as “pain is weakness leaving the body” or “crush your cravings” encourage distrust of our internal signals. Suffering is implied as a necessary component of achieving health. These messages encourage us to ignore the body’s feedback by overriding feelings of hunger, pain, and fatigue. Ignoring the body’s needs fosters a desire for self-mastery that puts us in a constant battle with our bodies. Health becomes a competition, a battle to be won rather than a practice to be cultivated through mindfulness, nurturing and self-care. As a result, a person who is trim and fit is admired for being disciplined and strong, whereas one who is overweight or diagnosed with a chronic disease is viewed as weaker or lacking self-control.
Throughout July we’ll look at the subtle impact body regulation has on our physical and emotional health. We’ll also explore how our ability to regulate breaks down--from an overactive nervous system, chronically tight fascia, to mental chatter--and look at how our yoga practice can help restore trust in our body. I invite you to consider how well you listen to your body. Can you sense what it needs? If so, how do you respond? Are you skillful at meeting your physical needs or are you, like many of us, prone to ignoring, denying, or distrusting your body’s signals? There are no right or wrong answers, just let these questions guide your practice and see what happens!
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