Tekoha: Interoception, pH, and the Microbiota

Series: Breathing, Body, Consciousness, and the Shifting of the Tensional Selves (Eus Tensionais)

Introduction — Brain Bee (first-person consciousness)

Before any thought, something in me already knows.
Sometimes it’s a subtle tightening in the abdomen.
Sometimes it’s a fatigue I can’t explain.
Other times it’s a strange hunger that doesn’t feel like “just” lack of food.

None of this arrives as a sentence.
None of it asks the mind for permission.
It is my body speaking from the inside.

While I try to understand, it is already regulating, adjusting, compensating.
Feeling comes before knowing.

Tekoha: the body’s internal territory

Tekoha can be understood as the territory of extended interoception:
the set of internal signals that inform the body about how it is living.

This territory includes:

• viscera,

• circulation,

• internal respiration,

• local pH,

• immunometabolic activity,

• bacterial communities.

Tekoha does not “think.”
It signals.

Visceral tensions are part of life

It is common to associate visceral tension with something wrong.
But biologically, that doesn’t make sense.

A healthy body:

• contracts viscera to digest,

• adjusts circulation according to demand,

• alters secretions,

• shifts internal rhythms depending on context.

These tensions are functional.
They only become a problem when they:

• cannot vary,

• cannot find expression,

• remain fixed for long periods.

Interoception: the body knows before the mind

Interoception is the capacity to perceive internal states:
hunger,
satiety,
diffuse pain,
the need for rest,
unnamed discomfort.

These signals:

• are not “emotional” in a psychological sense,

• are not thoughts,

• they are raw physiological information.

When the mind tries to interpret too quickly, it often gets in the way.
The body is simply asking for conditions.

Local pH: the detail that organizes the system

Each region of the body operates within specific pH ranges.
Small—but sustained—shifts can alter:

• enzymatic activity,

• muscle contraction,

• inflammatory response,

• cellular communication.

Prolonged visceral tension can:

• change perfusion,

• alter oxygenation,

• shift local pH.

This is not immediate disease.
It is adaptation in progress.

Microbiota: communities that “feel” the body

Gut bacterial communities are not just passing through.
They respond to:

• pH,

• nutrient availability,

• intestinal rhythms,

• autonomic state.

Changes in breathing and tension can:

• alter CO₂,

• influence splanchnic circulation,

• modulate the gut’s chemical environment.

The microbiota adjusts.
It also learns the territory.

Tekoha and the tensional Selves

Each Tensional Self sustains a compatible visceral state.

A Self of alertness:

• tends to reduce digestion,

• alters intestinal flow,

• shifts pH.

A Self of fruition:

• expands circulation,

• supports digestion,

• stabilizes bacterial communities.

The body does not choose these states by ideology.
It responds to the mode of living.

When the body cannot signal

In contexts where:

• feeling is disauthorized,

• pauses are forbidden,

• hunger, fatigue, or pain are ignored,
  Tekoha loses its room for expression.

The body then:

• maintains visceral tensions,

• reorganizes pH defensively,

• adjusts microbiota to survive the context.

This is not failure.
It is adaptive intelligence.

Breathing as a modulator of Tekoha

Breathing does not act only in the lungs.
It influences:

• abdominal pressure,

• venous return,

• visceral perfusion,

• acid–base balance.

Constrained breathing:

• reduces visceral mobility,

• alters interoceptive signaling.

Breathing that regains variability:

• restores circulation,

• expands signaling,

• enables reorganization.

Once again, this is not “technique.”
It is physiological space.

Recognizing Tekoha in daily life

Without excessive analysis. Observe:

• Does my body ask for something before I think?

• Do discomforts arise without a clear reason?

• Does my digestion change according to how I’m living?

• Does my breath reach the abdomen, or does it stay contained?

These answers are signals of Tekoha trying to communicate.

Closing

The body does not speak in words.
It speaks in conditions.

Visceral tensions, pH shifts, and microbiota reorganization are not deviations.
They are survival strategies when feeling has no space.

To understand Tekoha is to learn how to listen to what the body already knows—
before the mind tries to explain.

This text is part of the series Breathing, Body, Consciousness, and the Shifting of the Tensional Selves (Eus Tensionais), where different aspects of the same living system are approached from complementary angles.

References (post-2020)

Khalsa, S. S., et al. (2021). Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap. Biological Psychiatry.
→ Establishes interoception as a physiological basis for bodily perception and regulation.

Berntson, G. G., & Khalsa, S. S. (2021). Neural Circuits of Interoception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
→ Describes neural circuits linking viscera, brain, and bodily consciousness.

Furness, J. B., et al. (2020). The Enteric Nervous System and Gut–Brain Communication. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
→ Explains the functional autonomy of the enteric system and its communication with the whole body.

Dalile, B., et al. (2021). The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids in the Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
→ Connects microbiota, metabolism, and bodily signaling.

Breit, S., Kupferberg, A., Rogler, G., & Hasler, G. (post-2020 updates). Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Gut–Brain Axis. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
→ Shows how the vagus nerve integrates interoception, digestion, and autonomic state.

Quigley, E. M. M. (2020). Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis and Stress. Gastroenterology Clinics.
→ Shows how stress and tension alter pH, microbiota, and intestinal function.

Critchley, H. D., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2021). Interoception and Emotion. Current Opinion in Psychology.
→ Relates interoception to bodily states that precede conscious emotion.

Zhang, D., et al. (2022). pH Regulation and Cellular Metabolism in Health and Disease. Frontiers in Physiology.
→ Discusses how local pH variations organize metabolism and cellular function.