Body & Mind Awareness – Proprioception  & Interoception

Chronic pain, and the associated suffering, is widely prevalent and unresolved, perhaps endemic to all industrialized countries, much to the delight (profit) of the pharmaceutical industry.

As a Pain Specialist, I extended my studies to a linked aspect of chronic pain, Suffering.  The linked aspects of chronic pain and suffering are poorly understood by Western clinicians, whose primary offerings are drugs, and more drugs, as in serial drug therapies, with very poor outcomes.

These days, a medical doctor (MD) apparently considers a 50% reduction in pain related symptoms as a “cure”.  Their patients then have to figure their way out of their personal hell of the remaining unresolved issues.

What intrigues me is that Western style clinicians do not ask for help from clinicians like me, senior scientists, who may read their chart notes more closely and identify what they have neglected in their analysis.  Is it because their reputation would suffer if we resolved the issues at hand, at much lower cost?

The half baked ideas on managing chronic conditions, like Long Covid (PACS), offer case studies for consideration.

In the final analysis, I believe that the long suffering public, who directly bear the financial and health burdens of the monolithic ethnocentrism of our high priced and relatively incompetent sickness care system, will have to overcome these cultural challenges by exploring new therapeutic options, like TCM.

As I noted earlier, many of the chronic ills that assail us today are a direct result of having our minds repeatedly hacked by master manipulators. Marketers who subtly coerce us to act against our best interests, primarily by separating us from our hard earned money.

For people who have limited resources, these cognitive level boundary violations both insult and injure. In addition, they reduce the choices for other and more important needs, e.g., shelter (housing) and nutritious foods for health.

 

What is proprioception?

Proprioception involves the awareness of extension (distension) and contraction in our body, built on feedback from a large variety of system level mechanoreceptors – e.g., from the musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, circulatory, respiratory, and urogenital systems – as a result of our actions, past or present.

Proprioceptive feedback, an active research frontier, may appear mysterious because many of us live rushed lives, working hard to make ends meet. Due to continuous sensory overload, we are often largely unaware of the quiet voices from our Body, at the cognitive level.
Until we are directed by a guide (teacher) to pay attention, e.g., to areas that retain muscle tension, or to GI related sensations when we starve or stuff ourselves.

Developing above average proprioceptive awareness is critical to perform athletic activities at a high level, or when we wish to use exercise, aka regular physical activity (work), as a low cost therapeutic option for achieving long term health and wellness.

 

What is Interoception?

 Interoception is built on the dynamic – i.e., moment by moment – awareness of how we feel.  As with Proprioception, there is a broad range of Self awareness, with regard to interoception.

 Disorders and dysfunctions affecting our interoceptive awareness are linked to many chronic and resistant mental health disorders, ranging from anxiety and mood disorders to dysfunctional eating and substance use (addictive) behaviors, and the somatic symptom disorders often seen in patients with chronic and unresolved pain.

Both areas of awareness of Self are built upon the interfaces between fields of study known as physiology and psychology.  Body <> Mind integrative techniques with thousands of years of practice and evidence, like Yoga and Chi Kung (e.g., Taijiquan or Tai Chi), developed during a time when we lived without the constantly disturbing and societally disruptive influences operating under the control of Media, and more recently, Social Media , aka Web 2.0.

For those who understand what is going on, the fix is simple. Reduce time on mindless media consumption, via TV or smartphones, to less than 4 hours per day.

Invest more time on cultivating self actualization practices that increase both self confidence and awareness of societal connections. Especially self directed practices that increase our personal understanding of the diversity of human choices (lives) and their outcomes.