Personality
Types
“When
we practice being grounded in our bodies and present to our own inner
experience, it allows us to be receptive to ourselves, to others, and to that
which is greater.”
The
Narrative Enneagram
My
friend, Marica loaned me some materials on the enneagram. I am squarely a five,
with at strong four wing, which is to say, a thinker, and an observer, with a
streak of empathy. All my conscious life, I have poo-pooed these sorts of
indicators—the astrological signs, the enneagram, the Myers-Briggs—as being pseudo-science.
But after a little bit of digging into all three, I have found that they mesh,
at least in my case. The perception of me on the negative end is that I am
cold, intellectual, distant, anti-social and socially awkward. On the positive
end, I love to learn and am good at retaining and applying what I learn, I’m creative,
self-reliant, and authentic. I like people but only in small numbers and for short
periods of time. My personal idea of hell is a massive, eternal cocktail party
with lots of chit-chat. There’s much more to it than that, but suffice it to
say, I am neither a social butterfly, nor a wilting violet. You may want to
check into your own type and try it on for size. There’s abundant information on
the internet along with type indicator questionnaires.
The
truth is, though, for all types, grounding is essential. We may gaze into the
abyss, daydream, meditate, spend stretches of time in altered states of
consciousness, but we live our lives in human bodies, right here on terra firma.
We must stay grounded, or we spin off into fantasy, or worse, delusion. Some of
us love delving into the depths of things, educating our brains in all sorts of
directions, and some of us are happy to just be who we are, where we are, and avoid
deep thinking, analyzing, and gut-wrenching revelations. And that’s all good—people
are different, and that’s as it should be.
Staying
grounded means just what it says. Putting your feet on the ground in every
sense of the words. Going barefoot, spending time in the natural world;
swimming or wading in natural bodies of water. Watching birds fly and the sun and moon
rise and set. Listening to the sounds of nature—right now the cicadas are
especially vocal. Being conscious of breathing the air, its temperature, its
rhythm. Feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin, the coolness of grass
beneath your feet. Contacting the earth in whatever way you find most pleasurable.
I saw
the movie, Where the Crawdads Sing, last night. It’s one of my favorite
stories. The child, Kya, survives abandonment because the tidal marsh surrounding
her becomes mother and father, provider, and friend. She’s a modern-day Mowgli,
raised by the living creatures she encounters every day and a few kind souls
who come to love her. The earth will nurture you back to wholeness if you let
it. At the very least, keep your feet firmly planted, and you will bloom and
bear lots of fruit.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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