Can you feel your own heartbeat (at rest)?

[MarRister]

Just curious on this. After seeing a post on interoception did a bit of research on it. And one thing they talked about was getting people to see how accurately they could feel their own heartbeat. And I don't mean like taking your pulse through an artery or something, but just sitting there and focusing in on it and feeling it.

 

The thing is, I cannot feel my heartbeat at all at rest, even when I try to (P.S. I am not a vampire I do have a pulse lol) and was wondering how weird that was. Also a lot of the time, when my heart rate is high I can't always tell, but my fitbit will show me that it is higher. If I am scared, or anxious, then maybe I'll notice it more, or if I have just been exercising. 

 

Some scientists think training people to feel their heart beat (accurately) could lessen anxiety symptoms. I am finding it pretty fascinating how much of an effect physical sensations impact emotions and vice versa. 

 

Came across this article as well: https://www.vice.com/en/article/akw3xb/connection-between-heartbeat-anxiety

 

Quote

People with greater interoceptive accuracy—who can feel their heartbeats more—have more emotional intensity. This has been shown in a number of studies where people are given emotional material, like films to watch. The ones who are more accurate at feeling their heartbeats found the emotional films to be more intense.

 

Quote

Anxious people are more likely to think they have accurate interoception. Just like people can be accurate at perceiving their heartbeat without knowing that they are, anxious people can think they're good at interoception when they're not. “You could think you’re great,” Garfinkel said. “But when we test you in the lab, your accuracy could be quite poor.”

They’ve found that it's this mismatch between how accurate you think you are at feeling your heartbeat and your true accuracy level that is a strong predictor for anxiety symptoms—so, both having lower interoception as well as overestimating your own abilities.

 

[Ceebs]

22 minutes ago, MarRister said:

Some scientists think training people to feel their heart beat (accurately) could lessen anxiety symptoms.

God I think that would send my anxiety skyrocketing. I'm hyperaware of many bodily sensations, and I've had heart issues including coming close to cardiac arrest a couple times, so I'd hate that. When I've been on one of those monitors in hospital and the bloody thing starts chiming loudly cos something is abnormal, it stresses me to all hell.

 

That said, I don't feel my heartbeat too much when everything is normal (unless I actively focus on it, which I definitely try not to do), but I do often notice when it's doing something wonky. I feel certain arrhythmias very noticeably and it's a distressingly uncomfortable feeling.

[Artemis42]

I don’t think so. That’s very interesting though.

[Jade Cross Lord Of Toys]

Yup, just let me climb a flight if stairs 

[daveb]

I can, but I'm usually not consciously aware of it. I'm not sure how accurate I'd be though.

[MarRister]

7 minutes ago, daveb said:

but I'm usually not consciously aware of it

Oh yeah, I think most people wouldn't be aware usually, your brain kind of tunes it out, but seems like a lot of people, if they think about it, can feel it. 

[rebis]

41 minutes ago, MarRister said:

Some scientists think training people to feel their heart beat (accurately) could lessen anxiety symptoms. I am finding it pretty fascinating how much of an effect physical sensations impact emotions and vice versa. 

It does seem as if Mindfulness is pretty well universally regarded as beneficial, from any mode or approach to therapy.

 

I think I can feel my heartbeat at rest, if I really calm and focus on it. I have also tried to use mindfulness to help with anxiety for a long time, so. Interoception broadly is your basic/native sense of what is happening in your body, in general, and I am I think naturally very bad at that. I guess to your research's points, I'd probably agree that my having lower interoception naturally is likely part of why I've experienced high anxiety, and that practicing becoming more aware has been helpful to reduce anxiety.

[Guest]

Constantly. I have body-focused anxiety, and like Fleetwood Mac said, my heartbeat (literally) drives me mad. Especially when it skips beats or adds in extra beats.

 

1 hour ago, MarRister said:

Some scientists think training people to feel their heart beat (accurately) could lessen anxiety symptoms.

Hahahaha... lol, no. This is how you develop anxiety-induced heart palps.

 

1 hour ago, MarRister said:

They’ve found that it's this mismatch between how accurate you think you are at feeling your heartbeat and your true accuracy level that is a strong predictor for anxiety symptoms

It's actually really comforting to know that every single thing I feel inside my body for 16 hours a day, every day, might just be all in my head.

[MarRister]

19 minutes ago, rebis said:

It does seem as if Mindfulness is pretty well universally regarded as beneficial, from any mode or approach to therapy.

Yeah I keep thinking I could benefit from that. Feel like I need a guided course on it with instructor haha, cause I am not well motivated to do it on my own.

[Guest]

If I lay down to sleep I can usually catch it after a few minutes, but normally I don't sense my own heartbeat.

I think if I did have a better awareness of it it might be nice? I'm not sure. anytime I would expect it to be higher (exercise, anxiety, etc) I can feel it so.. /shrug?

I'm not sure I would get a lot out of it

[Jelle]

Yeah, I'm even feeling it right now.

[Epitaph]

Yeah. Since I picked up a condition that enflames the lining of my heart it's been more accute ever since. I can feel how something as simple as moving an arm raises my pulse.

[MarRister]

59 minutes ago, RoseGoesToMush said:

Hahahaha... lol, no. This is how you develop anxiety-induced heart palps.

Yeah, they didn't really talk about what caused people's anxiety, so for anxiety directly related to your heart, this may not actually be helpful. Or maybe it could give some a greater sense of control 🤷‍♀️ Probably somewhat personality dependent.

 

I've had a litany of heart testing done myself, and some weird things popped up here and there, but none that indicated any real heart issues. But I still had some paranoia about it since I never did do a proper follow up with the cardiologist (pandemic times) and since then I have found it helpful to have a Fitbit to periodically check my heart rate (I used to check it a lot more than "periodically" before but nothing scary has popped up so lost interest in that). But I could also sense I am feeling anxiety, check my heart rate and know the two are related, my heart isn't going rogue, it is a symptom of my emotional state. But also clearly I am not the best at sensing my own heart rate anyways, since I apparently can't really feel it at all at rest, so I am not hyper aware of it, but the Fitbit gave me that kind of biofeedback. I don't seem capable (at this time) of feeling my heart skipping beats or having double beats, but maybe I'd feel that in my emotions.

 

59 minutes ago, RoseGoesToMush said:

It's actually really comforting to know that every single thing I feel inside my body for 16 hours a day, every day, might just be all in my head.

I don't think they are implying that it is all in their head, but just have found that there is less accuracy in that perception and that is linked to symptoms of anxiety. Rapid heart rates and heart palpitations are still related anxiety symptoms. They don't really seem to understand why it is, just that the data has pointed in this direction. I think it is still all fairly new research. But the emotion and the quickening heart beat are a two way street, they impact each other. They also didn't indicate if people were just inaccurate or they are inaccurate in the same direction, like saying their heart beat was slower than it actually was or faster, or all of the above. 

 

"There's still so much we don't know about interoception, Garfinkel said. People who are anxious can be overly focused on their bodily sensations. But, as a person with anxiety, am I paying more attention to my heartbeat, or is it behaving in a different way and driving my anxiety? How do we tease apart what's actually happening versus my interoceptive dial being turned all the way on?"

 

"This discussion of the connection between body and emotions goes back to William James, often called the father of American psychology. In the late 19th century, he proposed that emotions were simply the names we gave to sensations in our bodies. When our heart is pounding, for example, that physical sensation gives rise to what we know of as "fear." We don't get scared and cause our hearts to beat. Our hearts beat, and make us scared."

 

"Today, researchers know from brain imaging that the area of the brain that processes internal sensations, the anterior insula, is also crucial in processing emotions—supporting James' idea that emotions and body are intertwined. Northeastern University neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett has similarly found in her work that emotions are shaped and defined by bodily sensations, past experiences, and emotional concepts from our parents and cultural upbringing."

[Lord Revan]

I can feel it only if something is touching the skin under which is the blood vessel. For example, ifI cross my arms, I can feel the blood pumping, or if I lay down on my stomach, I will feel the heart

[a little annihilation]

yes

[Destranix]

I can feel my hearthbeat and often it's accurate. But sometimes it's complicated, like I feel like when I have a high hearthrate but I have not.

Also I guess it might happen that one may feel several pulses and therefor may estimate a higher heart rate, but I'm not sure if that happend to me (but some thechnical devices measuring my pulse seem to have issues like that or similiar).

[rebis]

1 hour ago, MarRister said:

"There's still so much we don't know about interoception, Garfinkel said. People who are anxious can be overly focused on their bodily sensations. But, as a person with anxiety, am I paying more attention to my heartbeat, or is it behaving in a different way and driving my anxiety? How do we tease apart what's actually happening versus my interoceptive dial being turned all the way on?"

 

"This discussion of the connection between body and emotions goes back to William James, often called the father of American psychology. In the late 19th century, he proposed that emotions were simply the names we gave to sensations in our bodies. When our heart is pounding, for example, that physical sensation gives rise to what we know of as "fear." We don't get scared and cause our hearts to beat. Our hearts beat, and make us scared."

 

"Today, researchers know from brain imaging that the area of the brain that processes internal sensations, the anterior insula, is also crucial in processing emotions—supporting James' idea that emotions and body are intertwined. Northeastern University neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett has similarly found in her work that emotions are shaped and defined by bodily sensations, past experiences, and emotional concepts from our parents and cultural upbringing."

So, it's admittedly something I still have like a universe to learn about, but interesting to note that, as far as I can tell, pretty much all trauma therapy will involve some kind of body processing. It fact, it kind of seems like working directly with the body/brain might be more effective -- efficient/quicker, at least -- than any strictly cognitive approach.

 

If you're a more "cerebral" sort of person, but also have trauma in your history -- food for thought, I guess.

[MarRister]

I think when I go to bed, I'll try and see if that helps me get enough focus to see if I can feel the sensation. 

[Philip027]

Not only can I feel it, it's a source of childhood trauma for me because the sound kept me awake at night and gave me nightmares, and back then I didn't know what it was, nor was I able to describe it to my parents in a way that let them be able to inform me what it was either.  To this day it's a sound/sensation that makes me deeply uncomfortable.

[MarRister]

8 hours ago, MarRister said:

I think when I go to bed, I'll try and see if that helps me get enough focus to see if I can feel the sensation. 

And I could not…guess next attempt will be to do some jumping jacks or something, feel my heart when it is working hard and then see if I can follow that back to resting. 

[everywhere and nowhere]

18 hours ago, MarRister said:

After seeing a post on interoception

Do you mean introspection? Please don't perpetuate a garbled spelling...

I can feel my heartbeat not uncommonly, but it's probably because I tend to have a very fast pulse. I have low hemoglobin levels (I will never eat meat again no matter what), so my heart needs to pump blood faster than in fully healthy people. This accelerates even more when I'm stressed or afraid, or just physically exhausted - and unfortunately this has always been a problematic issue for me, my body tolerates little exertion. Cycling is fine, but for example, I simply cannot run. I'm not fat anymore, and even in my early childhood, when I wasn't overweight, almost the opposite, and hadn't had any injuries yet, I already noticed that other children can run and I can't... More precisely, my "running" speed is very low - trotting rather than running - and I have never been able to run more than some 300 meters without needing to at least slow down to a walking speed...

[Guest]

I can always feel it when lying on my left side. Other than that, I only notice it if I think of it

[Picklethewickle]

18 hours ago, MarRister said:

And one thing they talked about was getting people to see how accurately they could feel their own heartbeat. And I don't mean like taking your pulse through an artery or something, but just sitting there and focusing in on it and feeling it.

Not only can I not typically feel my heart rate, I can't find my pulse. I long assumed that I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to take a pulse, but one day my grandmother got talking about heart rate during a family gathering. She got us all to take our pulse and compare to each other. Not only could I not find my own pulse, no one else could find my pulse either. Finally my mother gave up, declaring "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you are dead."

[MarRister]

2 hours ago, everywhere and nowhere said:

Do you mean introspection? Please don't perpetuate a garbled spelling...

No, I mean interoception. Google it. It is considered to be another sense, like touch, taste, sight, etc. 

[Starry Sky]

Yes and I can often hear it, the blood pumping. The best I can describe it is like a squeak from right behind my ears or underneath or in my head and my brain just tries to put a placement to it

[Absentminded]

I can only feel and hear it well during or after exercise. Otherwise, I can't feel it well.

 

But I can see it!

It's kind of difficult, especially when I'm wearing a black shirt, or when my heartbeats especially low, but even then, I can see it. I just woke up, and am wearing a black shirt, but when I look carefully, in addition to the motion of my breathing, I can see a pulsing up and down over the left side of my chest. Normally, I don't even have to look that hard.

 

Can anyone else see their heartbeat?

[fooledbysecrecy]

very much so. and i can see it too @Absentminded ! like if i'm sitting with my leg over the other i can see (and feel) the leg move. sometimes it's like my entire body is moving with it. i became aware of this when i was a teenager and it's rather uncomfortable.

[Dagomir]

No, I don't think I can, definitely not at rest. I wonder if visiting an anechoic chamber would change that.

[bare_trees]

I can, and often think about it, being a cardiophile and all.  It does help to ease my anxiety, but by no means has it cured me of anxiety in general.  Maybe I'm a less anxious person because it's something that's very peaceful and calming to me, but I was already such an anxiety-ridden person that I have a long way to go.

[Calliers]

I can't, but if it's quiet and I plug my ears I can hear it beating away, and if I'm scared or something I can feel it beating super fast.