emotional autopilot

I call it the Triangle Syndrome. Others call it a rut. Still others, happiness. Whichever term you prefer, the definition is identical: Life maneuvered around the same, few points. The pattern sounds something like this: office, grocery, home. Repeat. Covid has further abbreviated the distance between the triangle’s corners to mere double-digit square footage, reducing us to an even more mindless circuit: bedroom, home office, kitchen. Repeat. (I believe the criminal justice system calls this “house arrest.”)

Such chronically repetitive patterns induce an emotional autopilot. Our existence becomes muscle memory, and we numb to our behaviors, surroundings, motives—even to those in house arrest (woops, I meant to say at home) with us. The moment we have drifted into this unquestioned, even numbing, pattern, we have landed squarely in the unexamined life, which Socrates declared was not worth living.

In our upcoming blogs, we will take Socrates’ wellness tip and examine a few of life’s most important areas. So, in lieu of making a New Year’s resolution, consider stepping out of the triangle with us, if even for just a lap or two. And if we find that life is happier inside the confines of those few points, that’s ok, too. But this I know: You can’t find peace until you examine the stability of the road you’re traveling.