Ep 86: Teaching the Senses of Proprioception, Interoception, and the Vestibular System

In this episode, I'll discuss three internal systems that shape every student’s experience on the mat, but are often left out of the conversation in yoga teacher trainings. They are: proprioception, interoception, and the vestibular system.

I'll teach you:

• What these systems are 
• Why they’re essential for movement, balance, and body awareness
• How to incorporate them into your teaching, and 
• Why students with injuries need this kind of teaching more than ever.

This episode is perfect if you want to deepen your understanding of the nervous system, offer more inclusive and trauma-aware classes, and help students move and feel with more confidence and clarity.

Transcript

Monica: 0:00

In this episode, I'll cover three internal systems that shape every student's experience on the mat, but are often left outta the conversation in yoga teacher trainings. They are proprioception, interoception, and the vestibular system. This episode is perfect for you if you wanna deepen your understanding of the nervous system. Offer more inclusive and trauma aware classes. Help students move and feel with more confidence and clarity. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Oh, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here is where we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, and all the real life knowledge You wish had been included in your yoga teacher training? Today we're diving into a topic that lives underneath the surface of every yoga pose, every transition, and every student experience. Yet it's something many of us were never taught to understand and our foundational teacher training. We're talking about proprioception, interoception, and the vestibular system. Three essential sensory systems that shape how we move, how we feel, and how we recover from injury. Even if you were taught these concepts in your teacher training, I wonder if you were taught how to teach them in your classes. I wasn't, but with some intention and practice, I learned how to teach students about these really important internal senses that they can practice connecting to and increase their awareness of. It doesn't matter what type of formats you teach, whether it's flow yin chair yoga, you can incorporate these teachings into your classes. Let's start by breaking down each one in simple terms, so you start with an understanding of what they are. First is proprioception. Proprioception is your body's ability to sense where it is in space. What allows you to touch your nose with your eyes closed or balance in tree pose without having to look at your foot? It's not just about balance. It's the reason students don't fall over Every time they move from Warrior two to let's say half Moon. It also explains why some students seem to struggle with coordination or can't quite find alignment even when they're looking in the mirror. The next is interoception. Interoception is your ability to sense what's happening inside your body, like noticing your breath, your heartbeat, or that fluttery anxious feeling in your belly before you teach. Your classes in Yoga Interoception is the gateway to self-awareness. It's what allows students to know if a pose feels safe or overwhelming. It's also a vital component of trauma-informed yoga because it helps students reconnect with internal sensations that they may have learned to ignore or suppress. You should be helping students learn to become more self-aware, not just emotionally, but physically as well. And the vestibular system is your inner GPS. The vestibular system lives in the inner ear and is responsible for spatial orientation, head position, and balance. It's activated in yoga. Anytime we shift the head, think in forward folds, maybe in inversions, or even simply turning the head in seated twists. If you've ever had a student get dizzy when they come up from a forward fold or feel off balance in downward facing dog, the vestibular system is playing a role here. So why is it important for you to know these terms and teach them to your students? It's because understanding these systems helps you teach more effectively. You realize that balancing poses are not just about physically practicing more. It could be a student's vestibular system that needs some exercises. Learning these concepts is especially important for students dealing with pain or injury. If you've ever experienced an injury, you know how dysregulated. Overwhelmed and protective, you can become about movement. Let's say a student recovering from an ankle sprain struggles with balance poses. Is it just muscle weakness? Well, that's one part of it, but it's more likely proprioceptive issue. That foot is no longer sending as strong a signal as it once did about where it was in space. Think about the students who push through a practice without knowing how they're feeling. That's an interceptive disconnect. Their bodies are talking, but they've been taught not to listen or they ignore the signals. Their interoceptive sense is giving them, in some cases this leads to re-injury, regression or burnout. and with vestibular changes, students who get dizzy, disoriented, or nauseous. In certain poses when you're able to explain why they're able to understand and modify based on this system and it can make or break their experience in your class. Think student trust and student retention. Let's skip practical. Now. Here are a few ways you can start integrating this knowledge into your teaching. To teach proprioception, you can offer eyes close variations. Teach familiar poses with the option for students to close their eyes to train spatial awareness. You can use tactical feedback like blocks, straps, and walls to help the nervous system feel its boundaries, and you can cue directionality, use cues like press down, reach up, or hug in to develop motor control. You may wanna pause this episode here and write down what poses you think you might be able to teach proprioception in to teach interoception. Think about pausing for internal check-ins. Invite students to ask themselves, what do I notice or what sensation is present right now? Slow your classes down a little bit. Invite students to become more internally aware. You can teach them to use their breath as a guide. Teach students to let their breath inform how much they move into or back out of a pose. And you can offer multiple entry points, create permission for students to modify back off or choose another pose entirely based on what they're feeling inside, not what they think they should be doing, or what the students next to them are doing. If you teach in a studio with mirrors, you might want to turn the class around, so the mirrors are behind the students and they can focus on what they feel and not what they look like. And finally, to teach vestibular awareness. Introduce head movements gradually, especially in beginners or older students. Let them find comfort before layering in fast transitions or inversions. For example, tilting the head side to side in seated poses before queuing to try it out in a more challenging pose, like a standing balance, like tree pose, for example. Use slow transitions because sudden changes in head positioning can trigger dizziness. Instead, cue slow mindful movements and teach with care and balance poses. Give students something visual to focus on and offer wall support if needed. If you've ever had a student with vertigo. That's a vestibular system issue. I had it, and let me tell you, it is not fun. It's very disorienting. It affects balancing and more balancing will not cure it. When you're teaching injured students, these senses are a big deal. When a student is injured, whether it's a sprained joint, they've got persistent pain, or they're still recovering and relearning how to move, these systems are often disrupted. The brain gets less clear input from the body, and in response it restricts. Movement creates tension or becomes hypersensitive. This is where your understanding as a teacher becomes invaluable. Teaching through proprioception, interoception and the vestibular system helps to rebuild these pathways. It allows a nervous system to recalibrate, leading to safer movement, increased confidence and better long-term outcomes for your students. This is not about stretching or strengthening, it's about remapping the brain body connection. So here's my challenge for you. Can you create a class that is centered around teaching one of these concepts? Can you teach all about proprioception and help students get a good understanding of it? Instead of pushing farther in class or offering more challenging poses, can you create a space where students come to learn about themselves and their bodies? Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects. Yoga also now have on the body helps you understand your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, then I know that you're a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes, sizes, alignment, and abilities come to your classes and you can serve. All of them, you know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It's important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. Subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops and share it with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally, thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright, thank you for listening. That's it for now. Bye.