Interoception: How Learning to Listen to Your Body Improves Movement and Wellbeing
Before you read on, try this:
Close your eyes and imagine you are standing in a room with 100 lightbulbs. One lightbulb goes out—would you notice?
Now imagine you're in a room with 10 lightbulbs, and one goes out. Would you notice then?
Most of us would agree: you're more likely to notice a change in the room with only 10 bulbs than in one with 100.
This simple example points to something known as the Faber–Fechner Law.
The Faber–Fechner Law comes from psychology and helps explain how we perceive changes in sensation—like pressure, sound, or movement.
If you’re new to this work, you might want to start with my guide to what the Feldenkrais Method is, which explains how awareness and learning help us move with more ease and less effort.
What Is Interoception?
Interoception is how we sense what’s happening inside our bodies. It’s our ability to feel our inner world.
Examples include:
Knowing when you’re hungry or full
Feeling when your heart is racing
Knowing when you need the toilet
The sensation of a tight chest when you’re anxious
A sense of calm or unease in your gut
Just as we have senses for the outside world (sight, sound, touch), interoception is the sense that lets you feel your internal state—your organs, rhythms, and physiological condition.
Why Is Interoception Important?
Interoception plays a key role in:
Self-awareness – knowing how you feel physically and emotionally
Self-regulation – calming down when stressed or anxious
Movement – sensing what parts of you are working too hard, or not enough
Boundaries and pain management – knowing when to stop, rest, or adapt
This is closely related to how we develop movement boundaries—learning when to continue, when to pause, and when to change direction.
Improving interoception gives you more information about yourself. This is especially helpful if you’re dealing with anxiety, persistent pain, or mobility challenges—allowing you to respond earlier, rather than waiting until things become overwhelming.
Hypersensitivity (Interoceptive Sensory Over-Responsiveness)
This means a person is very sensitive to internal sensations. They may feel things more intensely or become overwhelmed by their body’s signals.
It’s a bit like having too few lightbulbs—any change becomes very noticeable.
Examples include:
Feeling minor pain as very intense
Becoming anxious from a racing heart or digestive discomfort
Being highly aware of hunger or thirst
Feeling overwhelmed by emotional or stress responses (tight chest, shallow breath)
Hyposensitivity (Interoceptive Sensory Under-Responsiveness)
This is the opposite—reduced sensitivity to internal signals.
Here, it’s like there are too many lightbulbs—changes go unnoticed.
Examples include:
Not noticing hunger or thirst until it’s extreme
Missing early signs of illness or fatigue
Difficulty identifying emotions in the body
Being unaware of tension or pain until it becomes severe
Risk of injury from overtraining
How We Train Interoception in the Feldenkrais Method®
One of the unique aspects of a Feldenkrais lesson—whether in a group or one-to-one—is the constant invitation to check in and notice subtle differences.
For some, this is easy. For many, it isn’t.
In everyday life, we’re rarely asked to tune into ourselves in this way. Often, we only notice something when pain appears—pain being the body’s way of asking for change.
Why We Slow Down
If a movement is too fast or too big, it becomes difficult to notice how it’s organised.
It’s like having too many lightbulbs—your perception gets flooded.
To sense what’s happening more clearly, we slow things down. We reduce effort, simplify the movement, and allow smaller differences to become noticeable.
This is also central to awareness in the Feldenkrais Method—learning to pay attention to how you move, not just what you do.
Body Scans
At the start of most lessons, we check in with how we’re lying or sitting.
We might notice:
The pressure of the body on the floor
Areas of comfort or discomfort
How the limbs relate to the centre
This is a way of training interoception—learning to feel how you are, rather than how you think you should be.
Reference Movements
We often return to the same simple movement during a lesson to see if anything has changed.
To notice those changes, interoceptive awareness is essential.
“Different” might mean:
A larger or smaller range of movement
A change in quality—lighter, smoother, more fluid
A feeling of ease
A clearer connection between body parts
In Feldenkrais, small changes are often more meaningful than big dramatic ones. When we reduce effort, the nervous system becomes more sensitive—and that’s how learning happens.
A Simple Example from Class
Imagine turning your head gently while lying on the floor.
At first, it may feel the same each time. But as you slow down and reduce effort, you might begin to notice:
“Oh, this side feels smoother.”
“That shoulder isn’t quite resting.”
This is the Faber–Fechner Law in action:
By doing less, you feel more.
Why I Love This Concept
The Faber–Fechner Law reminds us that:
Slowing down is powerful
Subtlety is not weakness—it’s intelligence
The more present we are, the more we sense
Awareness grows from the inside out
Final Thought
If you’re curious how this ability to sense yourself fits into a bigger picture of learning, movement, and reducing pain, you can read more about what the Feldenkrais Method is.