Interoception and the Pelvic Floor: Why Body Awareness Matters
Somatic Therapy Practitioner and Yoga Teacher
Key Takeaways
What if your body isn't working against you?
What is interoception?
What is the connection between interoception and the pelvic floor?
Awareness - You can’t relax a pelvic floor you can’t feel.
Healing begins with a relationship to your body.
What if your body isn’t working against you?
Many of us approach our bodies like problems to solve. Often when we feel tension, discomfort or pain in the body our instinct is to pull away and do anything possible to numb ourselves or disconnect from what we feel in our body. Many of us have learned to tune out our bodies rather than to tune into them. The more we do this, the more our nervous system interprets any quiet signal from the body as unsafe and launches into disconnection. In theory, this should work as a protection mechanism. However, most of the time the more we ignore the small signals and sensations the body is communicating with us the louder and more disruptive they can become as a desperate attempt to get your attention. It might start as a whisper of tension in the hips asking for movement or sensation in the low back asking for rest but over time they might translate to “loud” pain or tension that can no longer be ignored.
What if your body isn't working against you? What if it's communicating with you? What if we approached these signals from the body with curiosity and compassion rather than judgements and disconnection. True healing happens when we stop trying to change our bodies or view them as broken and start learning to speak their language in order to listen and understand. Your body isn’t the enemy, It’s a messenger working on the same side as you.
What is interoception?
Interoception is your ability to notice what's happening inside your body. Interoception is also sometimes referred to as “body awareness” or the “mind body connection”.
Examples of interoceptive cues:
Hunger
Thirst
Fullness
Temperature
Muscle tension
Heartbeat
Breathing
Fatigue
Emotional sensations
Bladder and bowel signals
This awareness can become reduced after chronic stress, trauma, chronic pain, and pregnancy/birth. However, even without these things, modern day life is not built to support healthy interoception. Between busy schedules, productivity culture, ignoring hunger or fatigue and more. Most people can identify what they're thinking much easier than what they're feeling physically in the body.
Interoception is the quiet conversation happening inside your body every moment.
Examples of interoceptive questions:
Am I hungry?
Am I tired?
Am I anxious?
Am I holding tension?
Do I need movement?
Do I need rest?
Am I safe?
What is the connection to the pelvic floor?
The pelvic floor is deeply connected to the body’s protective system. The pelvic floor muscles often respond with guarding, holding or bracing before we’re even consciously aware of stress. Pelvic health is affected by interoception in many ways and connecting to many forms of interoceptive cues can be valuable tools in improving overall pelvic health.
Interoceptive cues such as:
Muscle tension: We cannot begin to release tension we are not aware of, whether that be pelvic muscles, low back tension, hip tension, jaw tension, etc. While strengthening pelvic muscles, it is also very important we are able to connect through awareness to the muscles in our body.
Emotional stress: If we aren’t able to notice early signs of emotional stress, it can be much harder to relax and find safety again once we are in distress.
Inability to determine safety: If we are unable to determine if we are safe, the nervous system will sense that we are unsafe. Not feeling safe will increase bracing and guarding of muscles in the body.
Bladder or bowel cues: Especially relevant when working towards improving bladder function, it is important to connect to these subtle cues within the body.
Deep breathing: Breath awareness, especially the ability to notice the difference between shallow breathing and diaphragmatic breathing, deeply impacts the pelvic floor.
Awareness - You can’t relax a pelvic floor you can’t feel.
This is where somatic therapy can be really helpful. By using movement, breath and visualization somatic therapy can help you to reconnect to your body’s sensations with curiosity, learn the unique language of how and what your body is communicating with you and build resilience within the nervous system. You can't soften muscles you don't notice or can't feel. The building blocks of somatics are built around gentle tools and techniques to safely lean in and connect to these sensations within the body and grow your body awareness. Healing isn’t about forcing relaxation; it’s about learning to listen to the subtle cues of your body and meeting your body’s physical and emotional needs one step at a time.
Healing begins with a relationship to your body.
The goal of interoception isn't to become hyperaware of every sensation. It's about rebuilding trust and connection with your body. Each time you pause, notice and respond with curiosity instead of judgment, you're strengthening that relationship. Over time, your pelvic floor and your nervous system will begin to realize they don't have to work so hard to brace and protect you. You don’t have to “fix” anything in your body. Sometimes the most healing thing you can do for your body is notice and respond to what your body has been trying to communicate with you all along.
This week, can you set aside five minutes daily to pause, notice and check in with your body? You can follow along with this practice video or take a few quiet moments to yourself breathing deeply and ask yourself… What need is my body asking to have met right now? You may be surprised by how much wisdom your body has been carrying simply waiting for you to listen.
If this practice resonates with you and you’re interested in learning more personalized tools to reconnect with your body, somatic therapy might be a great next step. Through somatic therapy we can explore what your body has been communicating with curiosity and compassion. Book your free 15 minute somatic therapy discovery call here to ask questions and learn more!