I recently misspelled introvert in a draft of an article I was writing. While I was correcting, I read what I had written: “interovert.” It was an easy enough fix, just remove the “e.” However, interovert has meaning on its own.

Mindfulness practice builds our capacity for interoception–the capacity to know what is happening in the body. Interoception connects us to our bodies and through our bodies to the present moment. When introverts practice mindfulness they become interoverts. The same would hold for extroverts. When they practice meditation they can become interoverts too.

Perhaps this is the goal of mindfulness practice–to transform introverts and extroverts alike into intereoverts–embodied beings moving through time in the present moment.

Interoception is largely the responsibility of the insula and the sensory cortices in the brain. It is not surprising and very encouraging that neuroscience studies reliably find changes to these parts of the brain.

This makes sense according to the axiom: neurons that fire together wire together. Since mindfulness practice involves paying attention the body it would tap into the interoceptive system of the brain activating the insula. The more the insula fires, the thicker it becomes as new neurons form and new connections proliferate.

The body is the path to presence. Instead of feeding the parts of our brain that manufacture stories, paying attention to the body connects us to oursleves and the world around us (that is really not separate from us). An interovert prefers the body over stories. Interoversion is the way of being in the world that is sensory, holistic, and integrated.

Enjoy your embodiment now by taking a mindful breath and letting that breath expand into the entire body. Just let the body breathe itself for a while and grow your insula!