No resolution : one word.

For this first Chronicle of the year, I wanted to share with you one of the words I’ve chosen to guide me in 2025.

No resolutions, no oppressive goals—just one word as an intention, a compass.

This word is INTEROCEPTION.

What is Interoception?

Interoception is our ability to sense and interpret signals coming from within our body.

• Like feeling your heartbeat
• Recognizing varying levels of anxiety
• Differentiating between a fluttery stomach from excitement, hunger, or a stomach bug
• Identifying when you’ve had enough to eat

And so much more.

“Interoception is your brain’s representation of all the sensations from your internal organs and tissues, the hormones in your blood, and your immune system.”

– Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

It’s fascinating, really.

Barrett explains that emotions are constructed experiences. We’re wired to link bodily sensations—pleasant, unpleasant, calm, agitated, or neutral—with an emotional label.

In other words, our visceral sensations contribute to our emotional experiences and mental representations.

Interoception, therefore, has a significant impact on our thoughts, decisions, and daily actions.

Why This Word for 2025 ?

This year, I’ve decided to pay close attention to sensations related to:

• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Hunger

Why these three specifically?

• Because they’re crucial for managing the body and brain’s energy levels.
• Because they play a key role in regulating the nervous system and emotions (you might find these past Chronicles helpful: I Don’t Want to Sound Like Your Mom or The Most Useless Question Ever).
• Simply because these sensations are vital: we need sleep and food to live, and living in constant hypervigilance is harmful to health.

The Challenge of Listening to the Body

It’s common sense, right? You sleep when you’re tired, meditate when you’re stressed, and eat when you’re hungry.

Haha—sure, if only it were that simple!

For me, it’s not always so straightforward. My instincts have been thrown off balance.

Who hasn’t pushed through exhaustion to get to the weekend or a vacation—or worse, burnout?

Who hasn’t ignored subtle stress or anxiety signals?

Who hasn’t skipped meals, overeaten, or eaten when not hungry because it was “time” or convenient?

It’s not our fault.

Blame it on conditioning, socialization, or systemic oppressions shaping our beliefs.

But that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. The key lies in deconstructing and reshaping the sensation-emotion combo.

Case Study : My Relationship to Hunger

I grew up immersed in diet culture. I started dieting at 13 and kept at it for years.

Each time, I lost weight and gained it back—plus more. Every decade, I’d lose 10 kg and gain back 12, then 15.

The last one? A sneaky intermittent fasting routine. I forced myself to ignore hunger for 12–16 hours daily, suppressing my body’s signals.

Sure, I lost weight, but when back pain temporarily disrupted my exercise routine, I stopped fasting and gained it all back—again.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care, but I’ve chosen to approach this differently now—with kindness.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• I was starving my body, which inevitably rebelled.
• I was judging my hunger, especially mild hunger, and feeling ashamed of it.

This shame (it’s not time to eat, I just ate, or I don’t want to eat in front of others) created a negative association between mild hunger and guilt.

This led me to ignore hunger until it was extreme, resulting in overeating or eating at “socially acceptable” times while ignoring my actual hunger or fullness signals.

Beyond Weight Control

This is bigger than aesthetics, wellness, or health—whatever bucket you put the toxic idea of weight control into.

Try to stay calm when you're absolutely starving—or when your partner dares to eat part of your dessert! (It happened 13 years ago. He’s now my husband, so he survived the cheesecake meltdown.)

I was putting myself in a state of stress and hypervigilance, unable to regulate my emotions.

Now, I’m reprogramming. I’m transforming the guilt tied to my hunger signals into sovereignty, kindness, and absolute trust.

Where there’s shame, there’s societal violence and internalized norms. I want to turn that shame into empowerment.

A Kind Intention for 2025

So, my word for the year—INTEROCEPTION—is my commitment to:

• Paying kind attention to my internal signals.
• Trusting them completely.

Complete trust—it’s a dizzying idea. Especially after years of not listening to myself.

It feels like opening Pandora’s box. That’s where hypno-coaching can help reprogram the sensation/emotion associations that no longer serve me.

With my word of the year, INTEROCEPTION, my intention is to tune into the earliest signals of fatigue, anxiety, and hunger and trust them fully.

• To better regulate my nervous system.
• To better manage my emotions.
• To free myself from conditioning and systemic oppressions.
• To reclaim more agency and power.
• To care for myself as a complex whole—mind, body, and spirit.

What’s your word for 2025? I am curious , tell me !

[email protected]

My best wishes,

Mélina