It may not be immediately apparent, but if you pause to truly reflect on what causes you stress, it is not the things that happen (or have happened) in your life. It is your internal dialogue – the things you say to yourself about what occurs that causes you stress. Your body keeps a score too. What we don’t release or allow becomes trapped in our body. This has a powerful impact on our brain and biochemistry.

Interoception can help you to connect to the fundamental ground of your being, the part of you that pulses with innate wisdom. When you live your life connected to this part of yourself, it frees you from being defined by what has happened to you and who you have been told you need to be. You learn to recognise the voice of your intuition and trust it as the guiding force of your life moving forward. And you attune to the messages in your body releasing stuck trauma and repressed emotions to live a fully embodied life. This radically changes your sense of self, freeing you from strong reactions to things you can’t control and allowing you to experience deep and meaningful connections with others. Once learned, interoception is something you can strengthen on your own.

While the stillness and focus of meditation cultivates it, interoception can be accessed in an instant at any point in your day. With practice, you will learn to live effortlessly as this awareness rather than needing to ‘access’ it. It is a permanent transformation of your whole body and perception of your environment (what is referred to as non-dual realisation).