Exteroception is the sensing of information from outside your body, such as light, sound, temperature, contact and the surfaces around you.
You hear a door close. Feel the chair beneath you. Notice the colour of the wall. These details belong to your surroundings, even though you experience them through your body.
There is also a room around the thought.
Perhaps you’ve become absorbed in an imagined conversation. For a moment, you notice the actual room: the window, the floor, the sound of someone walking past.
The concern may still matter. It isn’t the only thing available to your attention.
I AWAKE’s guided practices can include both inward attention and awareness of your surroundings. You aren’t asked to disappear from where you are in order to have a meaningful inner experience.
Exteroception differs from interoception, which concerns signals arising within the body, and proprioception, which concerns bodily position and movement. The words separate kinds of information; everyday experience often brings them together.
The International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association’s About the Profession introduces approaches that work with bodily awareness and movement. It provides professional context for the broader field surrounding these distinctions.