Your Superpower

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Your Superpower

Interoceptive awareness is your superpower when it comes to Intuitive Eating. In fact, it is the very foundation of Intuitive Eating. Having or developing the skills to perceive biological functions such as hunger and satiety are key and form the basis of the ten principles of Intuitive Eating. Without interoceptive awareness, it will be difficult, yet not impossible, to honor your hunger and become an Intuitive Eater.

If you find you are unable to achieve Interoceptive Awareness, have no fear! You are not alone. The improvement and further development of your Interoceptive Awareness is possible with a little time and patience. Even if you do not experience the feelings of hunger and all you sense are the sounds of silence, you can get the hunger sensation back. Some ways to connect with your hunger are to listen for biological cues and sounds such as a gurgling or growling stomach, as well as the accompanying feelings created by a hollow or empty stomach. Another sensation associated with an empty stomach is that feeling described as “hangry,” when you are so stressed out and tired from work or family life or any number of stressors we experience day-to-day coupled with not having put enough food into your body to sustain you for several hours, which just adds to mental stress and exhaustion. These are all sensations you can look inward to experience.

Notably, the principles of Intuitive Eating work to either increase your Superpower of Interoceptive Awareness or remove its obstacles. (More on obstacles to Interoceptive Awareness in a later blog post!)

Another way to get in touch with hunger and satiety cues is to listen to the voices of hunger and record what you experience. There is a Hunger and Fullness Sensation Chart that appears in The Intuitive Eating Workbook (E. Triboli and E. Resch 2017) but you can create your own if you like! Journaling about your experiences of looking inward to feel different biological hunger and satiety cues and describing those cues while reflecting on what you’ve been experiencing out of life recently may shed some light on your personal relationship with hunger and satiety.

Finally, each emotion you experience is reflected by a unique felt sense happening inside your body. Intuitive Eating helps us to connect with our sense of perception in order to get our needs met. Interoceptive Awareness is involved with both your physical and mental felt sense of well-being, leading to optimum health and happiness. By practicing getting in touch with your inner feelings and the accompanying sensations you experience, you will also be flexing your Interoceptive Awareness skills and consequently improve your Superpower.