Have you ever felt your heart racing, or felt a knot in your stomach when you’re nervous or stressed?
This is your body responding to the situation through your autonomic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that regulates things like heart rate, breathing, blood distribution, digestion, sweating, and pupil size. But did you know that by becoming more aware of what’s happening both inside and outside your body, you can actually change how you feel and respond? What if you didn’t have to have super sweaty palms with your heart pumping hard before heading into a job interview? What if there were tools to recognize this and change it?
In scientific terms, these skills are known as interoception, the ability to consciously sense our internal state, and exteroception, the ability to perceive environmental stimuli outside our body. Both are mediated by our nervous system, which is like a giant communication network that connects every cell in our body to the brain. By developing awareness and honing both interoception and exteroception through things like body scans, NSDR, meditation, and exercise, you can gain control over your emotions and physical responses.
But first, let’s discuss the autonomic nervous system…
The Autonomic Nervous System
Think of your autonomic nervous system like a car’s accelerator and brake pedals. Just like a car, our body needs to be able to speed up and slow down depending on the situation. Our accelerator is the sympathetic division, which prepares the body for the “fight or flight” response, while the brake is the parasympathetic division, which slows down the body’s processes, ready to “rest and digest”.
Developing awareness allows us to consciously access this part of our nervous system so that we can control our physiological state; sympathetic – high energy, ready for action, or parasympathetic – relaxation, rest, and digest.
Awareness is the difference between having or not having a steering wheel in your car. If you’re not aware of what’s happening, i.e. you don’t have a steering wheel, you won’t be able to control the car. But if you’re paying attention to the inside and outside environment, you can use the wheel and steer the car in the direction you want to go. The same goes for your body. By becoming more aware of what’s happening on the inside, you can control your emotions and body’s responses, like heart rate breathing rate, to better meet the demands of your current circumstance. For example, before taking a shot, an archer would not want to be shaky with their heart racing.
Interoception & Exteroception
The signals responsible for the perception of our internal state are transmitted along two major pathways, one arising from the skin, muscles, and joints and the other from the internal organs. These two pathways allow us to tell if our stomach is full or empty, if our heart is racing or beating slowly, or if our muscles are shortening or lengthening.
On the other hand, the signals responsible for the perception of the outside world are transmitted along the nerve pathways associated with our major senses; sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. These senses allow us to interact with our environment.
How to Build Awareness
Building awareness requires us to utilize both interoception and exteroception so that we can learn how to access our autonomic nervous system.
Now that we have a steering wheel, building awareness allows us to make better and more conscious decisions. This is the equivalent of moving from a novice driver to a competent driver who not only understands the car but can better respond to the unpredictable environment on the road.
One way to build awareness is to practice a BODY SCAN. Try it now…
Start by taking a few deep breaths, and pay attention to what’s happening in your body right now. Notice your heart rate, your breathing, and any sensations you’re feeling. This is like doing a quick check on the dashboard of your car, to see if everything is running smoothly.
By checking your dashboard more frequently you can develop a better understanding of your internal state and how it is affected by your habits, behaviours, and the external world.
EXERCISE can serve as a similar tool to build awareness and it’s my favourite. During exercise, you deliberately place your body into a heightened sympathetic state, as such, heart rate rises, breathing rate increases, blood flows to the working muscles, and you start sweating. If in this state you are able to bring attention to these physical sensations and changes in the body, both during and after physical activity, you can develop a better understanding of these responses outside of exercise. This holds true for your mental state as well.
Next time you are exercising tune in to your breath, muscle tension, heart rate, self-talk and other sensations. What do you notice? Direct your attention to your ankles, knees, hips, low back, and other joints. To your calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and other muscles. Do you feel more tension in one side compared to the other? What kind of things are you saying to yourself? Are you speaking positively or negatively? Just like a body scan, exercise can be used as a way to check in with the body and mind and their needs, leading to greater awareness of one’s physical and mental state.
Why is Building Awareness Important?
Let’s reflect using some specific examples. Suppose you are trying to improve your diet and eating habits. By becoming more aware of how your body responds to different foods, the amount of food, and the timing of food, you can then make healthier choices. For example, you may notice that eating a lot of sugar gives you an energy spike but eventually makes you feel sluggish, or that eating too much too quickly causes indigestion. Maybe eating a full meal within an hour of exercise makes you feel heavy and slow. By paying attention to these sensations, you can adjust your eating habits to make healthier decisions and feel better overall.
Now, let’s consider exercise again. Developing internal and external awareness during and after exercise can allow you to adjust your workout to meet your body’s needs. You may notice that during a particular exercise, your knee starts to ache, or that your technique starts to break down as you increase the weight, or maybe your energy level drops after a certain point. By paying attention to these sensations, you can then modify your workout to avoid injury, maintain proper movement technique, and get the most out of your exercise.
Ultimately, by building internal and external awareness through interoception and exteroception we can modulate our autonomic nervous system and thus our physiological state. This puts US in the driver’s seat so that we can learn to self-regulate.
Learning How to Self-Regulate
Awareness allows you to access your nervous system, control the accelerator and brake pedals of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions, and ultimately gives you control over these processes so that you can self-regulate in order to meet the demands required by a specific context, situation, or part of your day.
Self-regulation is the additional tool of following a map. If you have a map and you know where you want to go, you can plan the appropriate route. In the same way, if you have good self-regulation skills and tools, you can control your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in response to changes in your internal state and the external environment.
Like in the car analogy, to most efficiently get to where you want to go you need to master the art of steering while simultaneously controlling the accelerator and brake pedals. Then with the map, you’ll be there in no time. In real life, this is the difference between just passing an exam or acing it. Both times, you go in with all of the knowledge to succeed. However, without self-regulation, your nerves get the better of you and you forget half of what you knew. Whereas, by using specific tools to self-regulate and manage the fight or flight response, you ace it. If you can master awareness, you can then become an expert in self-regulation.
A beautiful and challenging test that ties all of these skills together is cold immersion.
Cold immersion provides us with the perfect scenario where you effectively force your body into fight or flight and test how good you are at self-regulating. When you enter the cold, your body is naturally going to activate your sympathetic nervous system because the cold is an extreme stress to the system. At this time, you may notice your heart rate increases and your breathing becomes shallow.
These sensations coupled with the cold will tell every fiber of your being to get out of the cold as quickly as possible. However, in order to stay in, you must utilize your skill of awareness and self-regulation tools. Here, you have put yourself in the driver’s seat, you can take control of the steering wheel to regulate your physiological reactions and build your mental resilience. By understanding these sensations, you can tap into your autonomic nervous system, control your breathing and regulate your self-talk to train your body to respond more calmly to stress, both in and out of the water.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, building awareness can help you become more aware of your body and the world around you. By honing your ability to perceive internal and external stimuli, you can learn to self-regulate and make more mindful decisions in both the short term and long term. With consistent practice, you can integrate these skills into your daily routine and experience a greater sense of well-being and resilience. So, start building your awareness today, and see where it takes you on your health journey.
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