Balancing the life trifecta

While catching up with Nic last week, I explained my crazy concept of the “life trifecta” and how mine is slowly getting back in balance.

The life trifecta are the three things that keep you sane and stable in your life.

Mine are: Work, friends/family and apartment

These are the things that keep me grounded, balanced and feeling like I’m in control of my life on a manageable basis.

When drama or issues arise in one quad (e.g. moving, being disinvited to a wedding/bachelorette party or work stress), I can handle it because the other two quads are stable. I am then able to manage the disrupted quad and balance resumes.

The shit starts to hit the fan if TWO quads have drama/issues. That’s when the delicate balance is thrown off, and a feeling of sadness or depression can sit in. One quad cannot sustain the stress/drama of the others on its own. If this happens, I start to emotionally shut down and try to get through it to slowly regain the balance.

Now let’s make the trifecta a quad and add a boy in to the mix. I’ve found that the joy of a crush or “new boy” can balance out immediately any other stresses in my previous trifecta, because I’m so distracted by how much I like him. Sure, the other quad imbalances seep in to the all power boy crush quad but, overall, a text, smile or night out with a guy can restore the balance. Making out sure helps too.

But if/when the boy quad falls in to issues or drama, the joy goes away and trifecta that merged in to a square is shot to hell again and it takes time to re-establish the previous balance. Fortunately when my square got smashed, the friend/family quad was so strong and supportive, it made the re-adjustment easier.

You may think I’m totally crazy after reading this, but this is how I logistically explain my life balance.

And right now, I have a big disruption in one quad with a few blips in another. Clearly, the 3am phone in my brain is ready to ring saying, “Chicago, we have a problem.”

How do you handle stress?