Regulation That Starts Outside Your Body: Temperature, Sound, Pressure

If you've sat through a body scan or regulation practice that didn't seem to work for you or your nervous system, or got asked to find an emotion in your chest and felt only nothing or experienced uncertainty or confusion or something similar to that, there are REASONS! And possible solutions, too. This is the what-to-do follow-up on interoception, and it walks through a body awareness practice that can start from a signal you can actually detect.

Tuesday's episode (linked below) covered interoception, the nervous system's ability to read internal signals like heartbeat and hunger, along with alexithymia, the difficulty around identifying and describing emotions, both of which can run differently for a lot of neurodivergent people. Today is about what to do when your body doesn't hand over those signals in a usable form.

I explain why the standard "notice it, then name it" instruction doesn't work well for brains with low interoceptive accuracy, and I walk through Tracking, a skill from my CRM (Community Resilience Model) training that doesn't include emotion-labelling by default and asks only whether a sensation is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. I also cover how to adapt it to external signals like temperature, sound, and pressure when internal ones aren't available or arrive late.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 The body scan that comes up blank, and why

0:35 Recap: interoception and alexithymia from Tuesday

1:24 Today's question: what to do when signals aren't usable

1:43 What the standard instruction actually asks of you

2:55 Why the body scan stalls for a structural reason

3:43 The shift from CRM training: Tracking

4:33 Dropping the emotion label, noticing pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral

5:29 If this resonates, a different starting point

6:14 Adapting tracking: external signals, working inward, late signals

8:35 What still works when the inward route doesn't, and where coaching helps

9:22 A guided temperature version, plus practice coaching

RESOURCES & LINKS:

• Tuesday's episode on interoception and alexithymia (video) https://youtu.be/ZIVvkk6eMQI
• Practice coaching and booking link: https://jendehaan.com/coaching
• Blog posts: https://jendehaan.com
• Wired Divergent podcast (guided temperature-based practice): https://jendehaan.com/wired-divergent
• Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newsletters

About Audio and Video

This show is available as a video on YouTube. Some audio you are hearing is taken from the video versions that are recorded outside, and why there are some changes in the microphone quality.

NEURODIVERGENT RESOURCES FROM JEN:

• AuDHD and autistic coaching (1:1): https://jendehaan.com/
• Regulation Practice Library (free!): https://jendehaan.com/wired-divergent/practices/
• Newsletter signup: https://jendehaan.com/newsletters
• Wired Divergent videos: https://youtube.com/@jendehaan
• Resources and blog posts: https://jendehaan.com

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About

This podcast was created, written, and is hosted by Jen deHaan. Jen has certifications related to healthy communities (Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy), nervous system regulation, and she is a trauma-informed certified coach. She is working towards her board certified coach (BCC) credential, and has a BFA in teaching creative arts to adults. You can find her full bio here.

This podcast was made in British Columbia, Canada by Jen deHaan.

I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, and honour the homelands of the Qualicum First Nation and the Snaw-naw-as First Nation, as well as the ties of the Snuneymuxw and K'ómoks First Nations. I would like to express gratitude to these and all First Nations for their continued stewardship of these lands and waters where I create these episodes.

DISCLAIMER:

Wired Divergent is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you're in crisis or need clinical support, please reach out to a qualified professional.

Crisis & Support Resources: https://jendehaan.com/mental-health-resources

Full Disclaimer: https://jendehaan.com/disclaimer

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy