• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Multiple Enneagram Subtypes/Instincts Feeling the need to preserve ones beauty: Is this an Sx/SP and Sp/Sx thing?

EJCC

The Devil of TypoC
Joined
Aug 29, 2008
Messages
19,129
MBTI Type
ESTJ
Enneagram
1w9
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I relate to this in some regards. I'm kind of vain about my hair, for example. I'm intensely proud of it, on the one hand, but constantly dissatisfied with it on the other, so every morning is an exercise of "what can I do to make my hair look even better today?". The rest of me does not get nearly that level of pampering, probably because no aspect of me is as beautiful as my hair. So, coming back to the OP, I suppose I am pretty focused on preserving my beauty, when it comes to the aspects of myself that I actually find beautiful.

However... I'm not afraid of aging. Aging is honestly not on my radar right now, because I'm 22 and I believe that people are their most beautiful from their early thirties til their early forties.
 

SilkRoad

Lay the coin on my tongue
Joined
May 26, 2009
Messages
3,932
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I honestly think I'm simultaneously somewhat vain and somewhat insecure about my looks. Perhaps partly due to the varying reactions I get: in large part because of my height and my somewhat androgynous features, some people think I'm a model, and some think I'm a man... :huh:

I wear very little makeup but I like playing with clothes. It varies, though: sometimes I really dress up and sometimes I really dress down. I do worry about my attractiveness to the opposite sex so I'd dress up the most if I feel I have a chance of impressing someone I'd like to impress. Though I don't think that's very obvious to the casual observer. It did take me a long time to develop a strong sense of style, perhaps partly because that doesn't seem to be a very big deal to anyone else in my family.

I definitely love beautiful things, though I wouldn't say I'm hyper-sensitive to the aesthetics of interior design and such. In those terms, I'm probably happiest when surrounded by items that have some personal meaning to me...bookshelves, items I've collected on my travels, etc. Jewellery is quite important to me; I tend to buy jewellery when I travel and then wear it a lot and remember where I bought it, while also making it part of my image.

I am a bit afraid of aging but not insofar as I'd go for Botox or plastic surgery. I'm in my early thirties and I like to joke that when I hit forty, I'd much rather look like a somewhat haggard 32-year-old than like a well-preserved 40. ;) So far I seem to be doing reasonably well for looking my age or younger, though people's guesses of my age often vary wildly and that makes me insecure too. (Even at this age, I find many assume that if you're tall, you're older.)
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
5,059
MBTI Type
INtp
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I think preserving beauty is more of a sx focus.

But I suppose sp's would tend to worry more about preserving health, which would incidentally affect beauty.

I want to preserve health as well, but I place a higher emphasis on looks.

Preserving health is more important to me than looks but preserving looks are important too.

I think about it alot, I look at old people, and it somewhat terrifies me to know I will look like them one day if I live that long. I'm SX last and still have issues about it. I think alot of it is due to society. People do judge you on your looks and there is a certain stigma about looking ago.
 

The Great One

New member
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
3,439
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
6w7
I'm very much drawn (sometimes covet) to beautiful things and places. One of my post-graduation/working fantasies is decorating my living space like I've always wanted to (think lots of window seats, lofts, over-stuff chairs, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves).

I've always been careless about looks/dressing but I'm pretty vain about my skin and teeth. I'm lucky that I can shave 10+ years off my face...more if I used make-up. When I'm able to, I'll have these awful dark circles underneath my eyes (chronic allergies and abnormally thin skin) removed by laser. Everything else? Look at my signature...age-related physical beauty loss comes to us all. :(

I'd like to be more fit but my ability to exercise like I want is limited by RA.

Yeah, my skin and teeth are precious to me as well. I wouldn't know what to do if I got a few of my teeth knocked out and couldn't afford to get them fixed. I'm also paranoid about my skin getting old and saggy one day.

past 24 still considered old in the gay community?

i dont feel as much of a need to be beautiful, think the focus is living life to the fullest.

To him it's old. Although truth be told, it's probably because he's into dating twinks and they don't go for older people in general.

This is absolutely true for me. I think beauty is virtue and truth and harmony, and very little is worth doing if it's not beautiful. I want to live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible. And of course health and beauty are correlated. Ultimately health is more important, but as they tend to go together, this usually isn't a problem. I'm probably sx/sp then.

You sound more Sp/Sx to me actually.

I relate to this in some regards. I'm kind of vain about my hair, for example. I'm intensely proud of it, on the one hand, but constantly dissatisfied with it on the other, so every morning is an exercise of "what can I do to make my hair look even better today?". The rest of me does not get nearly that level of pampering, probably because no aspect of me is as beautiful as my hair. So, coming back to the OP, I suppose I am pretty focused on preserving my beauty, when it comes to the aspects of myself that I actually find beautiful.

However... I'm not afraid of aging. Aging is honestly not on my radar right now, because I'm 22 and I believe that people are their most beautiful from their early thirties til their early forties.

That's where we differ: I'm terrified of aging. When I look at at an old person's skin and how bad it looks, it's as terrifying as having Michael Jackson as your baby sitter in 2004.
 

SD45T-2

Senior Jr.
Joined
Feb 18, 2012
Messages
4,229
MBTI Type
ESTJ
Enneagram
1w2
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
I honestly think I'm simultaneously somewhat vain and somewhat insecure about my looks. Perhaps partly due to the varying reactions I get: in large part because of my height and my somewhat androgynous features, some people think I'm a model, and some think I'm a man... :huh:
Kinda like Tilda Swinton.
 

Peter Deadpan

phallus impudicus
Joined
Dec 14, 2016
Messages
8,883
On a surface level, this is more Sx/Sp.
Sp ----in support of----> Sx
working out ----> to be attractive
Not working out primarily for health.
 

Luminous

༻✧✧༺
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
Messages
10,235
MBTI Type
Iᑎᖴᑭ
Enneagram
952
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Exercising in attempt to lose/ maintain weight, using moisturiser (I can't remember how old I was when I started using it everyday) with spf, retinol, having long hair, feeling insecure and not good enough... yes.
 

Virtual ghost

Complex paradigm
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
19,769
In the context of the OP, yes it is. Certainly all types are capable of putting effort into their appearance, but the OP was more specific than that.

Al I am saying is that all Sx/Sp and Sp/Sx people on the planet should make about 2.5 billion people and you really can't generalize.
Plus it is obvious that 2w3 Sx/Sp will probably care more about this than 9w8 Sp/Sx. (plus culture and financial factors)


I really think you can't generalize this.
 

Agent Washington

Softserve Ice Cream
Joined
Jan 24, 2017
Messages
2,053
Yes. There is a huge difference in how people react to you based off how you look, shallow as it seems. I do think it has to do with Sp. Or Sx for the idea of attracting someone, but not necessarily attracting someone. Just... intensity at first sight? (Bouncing ideas off the board.)

I dunno. There is quite a social pressure to remain young, as I'm getting a flashback from some diversity class where old people talk about not being represented in health magazines and the like. :strokeschin:
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
Messages
1,447
MBTI Type
*NF*
Enneagram
852
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Well as one moves from one subtype to another as times goes by and one improves...
I was sx and used to care a lot when I was young.

Today I don't give a damn, I can go out in Montecarlo with my pyjamas on.
I feel proud and well in my own skin with much more simplicity.

I care much more about other stuffs. I must confess to switch from sx/sp/ to sp/sx I have been crossing hells....
Crossing hells in pyjamas is both fun and delicate....... :Ne:
 

Peter Deadpan

phallus impudicus
Joined
Dec 14, 2016
Messages
8,883
Well as one moves from one subtype to another as times goes by and one improves...
I was sx and used to care a lot when I was young.

Today I don't give a damn, I can go out in Montecarlo with my pyjamas on.
I feel proud and well in my own skin with much more simplicity.

I care much more about other stuffs. I must confess to switch from sx/sp/ to sp/sx I have been crossing hells....
Crossing hells in pyjamas is both fun and delicate....... :Ne:

No one switches instincts. Instincts, as the name suggests, are the most instinctual part of an individual's personality structure. You could certainly grow to incorporate your blind spot, which is a sign of good health, but switching strategies completely, particularly from synflow to contraflow, is not really possible.

It is pretty complicated and nuanced though, so I could see how you could feel that you've switched.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
Messages
1,447
MBTI Type
*NF*
Enneagram
852
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
No one switches instincts. Instincts, as the name suggests, are the most instinctual part of an individual's personality structure. You could certainly grow to incorporate your blind spot, which is a sign of good health, but switching strategies completely, particularly from synflow to contraflow, is not really possible.

It is pretty complicated and nuanced though, so I could see how you could feel that you've switched.

Well believe what you want. It is your own freedom.

As I am concerned I trust some enneagram teachers and their courses, they make sense to me.
 

Peter Deadpan

phallus impudicus
Joined
Dec 14, 2016
Messages
8,883
Well believe what you want. It is your own freedom.

As I am concerned I trust some enneagram teachers and their courses, they make sense to me.

I don't know what makes you assume I'm not mining my information from reputable leaders in the Enneagram community. :shrug:
 

Maou

Mythos
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
6,117
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
If being drawn to and appreciating beauty in all things is sx, then I most definitely have a stronger sx than I thought.
 

Red Memories

Haunted Echoes
Joined
Jun 3, 2017
Messages
6,315
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
215
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
If being drawn to and appreciating beauty in all things is sx, then I most definitely have a stronger sx than I thought.

I thought appreciating the beauty of material thing was more Sp actually.
 

Venus Rose

New member
Joined
Jul 8, 2016
Messages
324
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I've been doing a lot of research lately and I've kind of been wondering: Is feeling the need to preserve ones beauty an SP/SX and SX/SP thing? I've noticed that feeling the need to have an extremely aestheitcally pleasing outer appearance is an SX thing in general. However, I've noticed that doing things such as exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, using anti-aging creams, etc, in order to preserve ones looks when they are older is indeed an Sx/Sp and Sp/Sx thing. I've noticed that these kinds of things aren't as big of a deal to types such as the Sp/So for example. It seems like the Sp/So would do these types of things as well, but they would do it more for the reasons of preserving one's life than one's looks. So is my theory correct, or am I lost in the woods?
@Elfboy @highlander @Lady X

you folks may want to check out this thread.

Interesting, since I am still young, I haven't really gotten to the point in life where I start "preserving my beauty" :)
But I do suspect that when it comes down to it, I would care about it to a sufficient degree. And yes SX types want to look attractive but one of my initial issues with descriptions emphasizing that just struck me as...not quite "hitting the spot" when it comes to how sx plays out for me personally. When I hear "wanting to look attractive, and take care of their appearance," it just seems like an oddly "human" thing. It also struck me as something...hmm I am not sure how to word it, perhaps it's that I am Creative on DCNH, perhaps its that the sensing functions are low dimensional for me, but almost like a really "trite" way to put it (what sx is) - though I am not saying that is how others would feel about it. Regardless, I could not "resonate" with it in that it did not communicate the complex nuance of how sx manifests for me personally. It's very psychological and emotional for me - a lot of things are. I would say to some extent I may even neglect my appearance because that is simply not my conscious focus. However, I do focus enough so that I at least look presentable.

I am actually now wondering if that overt focus on physicality might actually be bringing SP into play, and hence my attraction to more psychological/mental aspects of any X concept, specially as it applies to me.
 
Top