Practical insights
Practical insights
Boosting true bodily signals
Experiences that bring our real bodily sensations more effectively to our awareness may be able to support physical and emotional regulation. For example, heartrate and breathing monitors are often used to provide feedback to participants in relaxation-focused experiences.
Creating illusory bodily signals
It is also possible to create interoceptive illusions, for example by providing a haptic or audio heartbeat (e.g., a heartbeat sound or pulse-like vibration). If the illusion is convincing, timed closely enough to the real pulse, people can think that the artificial rhythm is their own, and this can in turn modulate their emotional state (e.g., increasing fear by portraying a rising heartrate, or promoting calm through simulated slow, steady beats129).