Addicted to Adrenaline

Me a culpa! I was sitting in a business meeting and the facilitator had to step out. We all pulled out our phones, including me, even though I did not have one urgent thing to attend to! I am embarrassed to say, I pretended, so I could look busy. Because busy people are (finish the sentence)….important. Aren’t they? I heard it when one of my treasured clients said she did not want to “bother” me because I was “such a busy woman.”

What she did not realize was that I was “busy” spinning all my plates in the air. That I had caught the national disease of addiction to adrenaline and forgotten how to “learn to be still.”

“Addicted? Isn’t that a strong word?” After all, we are not stealing because of being busy! In fact, we need to be doing all this stuff to survive, stay fit, make money and so on. No, we are Virtuously busy! Oy ve!

Can you imagine the look on someone’s face as you answer their “How are you?” question with: Peaceful thank you. I have been going for long evening walks, meditating and doing contemplative writing, reconnecting with friends and family, eating slow cooked meals and so on.  Instead, we help make each other feel good about being in the cult by answering: “So busy!”

Here is a Definition of Addiction

“Doing the same destructive thing over and over, expecting different results.” Some people also use it to define insanity. I sold my home in a big city to move out to a small town to go cold turkey from adrenaline. Twelve years later, here I am again, trying to grow a full business and love a family. Why would I hop back on the maze? As with any addiction, there is always a reward (or else we would not keep doing it) and, a price to pay.


The Rewards

Self importance, we get to belong to the big fat adrenalized meet up that is society, we get to avoid what may bubble up from that “still small inner voice,” and we get to keep the status quo. We don’t have to change anything.


The Price

A realization that we are not that important in our little worlds of wash, rinse and repeat. We are so “busy” that we miss our lives. We have forgotten how to breath. (Notice how you hold your breath as you address your sea of emails.)  How to be present. How to create. How to really deeply listen. To know what really makes a difference. Our relationships suffer. Our bodies suffer. Sometimes life will slow us down with some ‘warning’ accident or illness. Someone close to us dies and we realize again that “Life is precious”..too precious to be spent “busily” spinning plates supped up  on the latest addictive drug, adrenaline.  

How are you paying the price in your life for your big or small addiction to adrenaline? Contact me at to find out how to step back, re-evaluate or discover your business and personal passions, and live a life of deeper purpose and meaning.