Elahniverse Dictionary
Proprioception
The body's sense of where it is in space. The sixth sense, and the doorway to interoception.
Proprioception is the sense you are using right now without noticing: the felt knowledge of where your limbs are, how your joints are angled, how much force a muscle is holding. Close your eyes and touch your nose and the sense that guides your hand is this one. It runs on receptors in the muscles, tendons, and joints reporting position and tension in a continuous stream.
It is often called the sixth sense, and it is the near neighbor of interoception, the sense of the body's internal state. Proprioception maps the body in space; interoception maps the body from the inside. Attention that starts with the first tends to open onto the second.
That is why a practice grounded in physical sensation can widen inner awareness. Noticing posture, weight, and the pull of a muscle is a doorway. Follow it far enough and you begin to notice heartbeat, breath, and temperature, the quieter signals most people never learned to read.