neuroception: our built-in surveillance system

Have you ever felt your heart race before anything even happened? Or felt your stomach drop the moment someone walked in the room—even though nothing was said? That’s not you being overly sensitive. It's your nervous system doing its job.

We have our own, built-in surveillance system called neuroception—a term coined by Dr. Stephen Porges. It describes your body’s ability to detect safety, danger, or life threat completely under our level of awareness. 

You don’t choose what your nervous system senses. We can’t reason our way into feeling safe. Your body picks up on cues and adjusts your physiological state accordingly.

This surveillance system—neuroception—works through three pathways:

1. Outside the Body

Our nervous system is constantly scanning the external world for signals of safety or danger—even when we’re not consciously aware of it. These cues come from our physical surroundings and sensory input, like:

• air that’s too cold, too still, or oddly drafty
• flickering lights or that “big light” that makes you squint and cringe
• background noise you can’t tune out—like traffic, humming appliances, the cool guy with the really loud muffler...
• visually cluttered spaces, or rooms with no clear “escape route”
• smells—good, bad, or just too much happening at once
• that one itchy tag, waistband that digs in, or bug bite that suddenly becomes your whole personality

One of these on its own might not be enough to trip the alarm — but when they start stacking up, watch out!

2. Inside the Body

Your nervous system isn’t just tracking what’s happening around you—it’s also checking in on what’s going on inside. Neuroception picks up internal signals like:

• Heart rate, breath rhythm, and gut sensations
• Hunger, hormonal shifts, or inflammation
• Pain, fatigue, or sensory overload
• That heavy, wired-but-tired feeling or a sudden wave of nausea

These cues are our system’s way of asking: Do we have the resources to engage right now? Or do we need to protect, pause, or power down?

3. Between

This is the in-between space—where nervous systems talk to each other, with and without words. It’s not just what someone says, but how they show up. You pick up on things like:

• Eye contact—does it feel steady, a little too intense or fleeting?
• Tone of voice—calm and kind, or sharp, flat, maybe a little too rushed?
• Expressions, gestures, and timing—do they feel natural… or kind of forced and offbeat?

The littlest cues can get flagged by our neuroceptive system—often before we even have a chance to think it through. Sometimes we pick up (or give off) a “bad vibe,” and it doesn’t mean something’s wrong with them or us. It might just be a miscommunication between nervous systems.

Knowing that gives us a chance to pause and get curious: What set off the alarm? Was it their tone? Their timing? Something that reminded you of a past memory?

It’s not about overanalyzing every interaction—it’s about noticing a pattern so we can name what we need and stay in a state that allows us to enjoy what we’re doing.

Mismatched Neuroception

Our neuroception is always on—constantly scanning for cues of safety, danger, or life threat. But for many neurodivergent folks, trauma survivors, or people living under chronic stress, that internal surveillance system may start to flag “danger” even when a situation doesn’t require it. Think excessively sweaty pits when you’re simply ordering some french fries. You’re not running the New York City marathon, but man, it sure feels like it.

Deb Dana calls this mismatched neuroception—it’s not wrong or broken, it’s adaptive. Our system is doing exactly what it was wired to do: protect us. But sometimes, it’s using a rulebook written during more threatening times. Even if there’s no visible or immediate danger, your nervous system may still sense a threat and respond accordingly. It’s not overreacting—it’s overprotecting, based on what it’s learned.

Since neuroception happens beneath conscious awareness, you can feel unsafe or dysregulated without knowing why—and your body reacts before your brain has time to catch up. The tricky part? Cues of safety might not register either—not because they aren’t present, but because your system needs to relearn how to recognize and trust them.

The good news? Safety can be relearned.

Not through logic alone (you can’t think your way into regulation), but through gentle, consistent experiences that help your system update its rulebook.

So how can we begin to shift this mismatch?

• Track your state: Am I in a mobilized, shut down, or regulated place right now?
• Name what you’re sensing: Bright lights? A critical tone? That familiar tension in your chest or jaw?
• Signal safety back to your system: Through breath, rhythm, predictable routines, or co-regulating presence.
• Honor the response: Even if it feels “too much” or doesn’t match the moment. Your system is responding to something—maybe not what’s right in front of you, but still very real to your body.

Like Porges says, “connection is a biological imperative” meaning—we’re wired to be connected, to feel safe in community with others.

Neuroception tells us whether that connection feels possible—or too risky.

The work is not forcing connection, but slowly learning how to trust it again.

shine bright, be you 

♥︎