Energy efficiency is key to our survival. To ensure that it occurs, our brains are constantly predicting – making sure our body gets the resources it needs (salt, glucose, water, blood, etc.) well ahead of time. It does it through a process known as ‘allostasis’. According to neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, the brain is constantly guessing “when to spend resources and when to save them”.
Our brains are working to predict and prepare our bodies to respond accordingly. But your body can hit a deficit when it marshals these resources to respond to unexpected expenditures such as illness, as well as violence, racism, sexism, or hardship. That’s why it’s not coincidental that those who experience poverty and abuse
