This does not need to be our reality. Perhaps with the exception of trauma, which is triggered by events that show up uninvited, all the other quadrants are firmly within our span of control.

become sad. We become weaker. We become depressed.

Feeling stressed about events that have not yet happened or events that are completely outside our domain of influence and control is not part of the standard operating procedure of our stress machine.

Stress is supposed to be acute, sudden, and temporary in nature. Humans are designed to stay busy surviving, not worrying about likes on Instagram. When a threat shows up, we’re supposed to handle it head-on and either survive it or, well, get eaten.

In physics, there are two main reasons why an object subjected to stress would break. The first is because an excessive force, which exceeds the object’s capability to carry, is applied over a very short period of time.

It’s the same trigger, and yet, the resulting stress differs. It’s not just the triggers that make us feel stressed.

The greater the number of stressors, the greater the resulting force and the higher the intensity, or at least our perception of it, and, accordingly, the higher the load we need to carry.

Put together, the stress cycle and the negative feedback cycle form a full trip

the type of major external events that blindside us on a quiet Sunday and flip our lives upside down.