word of the year

Each year, I give myself (or am given) a word

I’ll reflect on that word throughout the year

I’ll let my decisions and goals be driven by that word

And this year’s word… drumroll please

Homeostasis

I smirk as I write because it seems like such an unusual word to select

It’s December so I started thinking, “What’s my word going to be for the coming year?”

I had listened to Anna Lembke, MD on a couple of the Huberman Lab podcasts as she spoke about dopamine addiction

I ordered her book, dopamine nation, and immediately began diving into it

As she wrote about addiction and the effects of addiction on dopamine receptors, she wrote…

“Here’s the good news.  If we wait long enough, our brains (usually) readapt to the absence of the drug and we reestablish our baseline homeostasis: a level balance… we are again able to take pleasure in everyday simple rewards. Going for a walk.  Watching the sun rise.  Enjoying a meal with friends.”

Homeostasis, the space I’ve been trying to run towards

I think back to before I was on my phone until I turned my light out at night, when I would take a walk without listening to a podcast, when I would watch a game without worrying about my bets and fantasy players… when life was, in a sense, simpler.  It was lacking the dopamine highs and crashes.  It was filled more with… feelings and silence and poetry and I would say, life itself