Evil Otter
New member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2011
- Messages
- 164
- MBTI Type
- ISTx
- Enneagram
- 5w6
Enneagram institute has a couple of pointers for Type 9 growth but they all seem to either boil down to just common sense (like exercise is good) or this idea that we as 9's just blend into everything rather than being assertive. The following point is one that seems to summarize this notion:
"Exert yourself. Force yourself to pay attention to what is going on. Do not drift off or tune out people, or daydream. Work on focusing your attention to become an active participant in the world around you. Try to become more mentally and emotionally engaged."
My response to this was, "Great! And how exactly am I suppose to do that?" The problems I see are that 1) I really don't have a preference and therefore have nothing to exert, 2) I've gotten to the point where I can daydream and still maintain a simple conversation, 3) "what is going on" is something completely idiotic (like a morale meeting) and my preference is to "tune out", and/or 4) even if I am fully aware of my emotions, the expression of my emotions, on whichever side of the spectrum they fall, always seems to come across as being excessive and therefore, generally not well received giving me further cause to contain them or ignore them out of existence.
So my question is: Has anyone figured out how to actually be more engaged, particularly emotionally, without seeming like you just opened the flood gates?
Having not actually figured it out yet, it seems like this is very much connected with discovering one's passion(s). Something that also seems to be a mystery (at least for me, maybe for all type 9's). If what you are passionate about is what you are most emotionally invested in, then how can a person that buries these emotion be passionate about anything? This is all very frustrating.
"Exert yourself. Force yourself to pay attention to what is going on. Do not drift off or tune out people, or daydream. Work on focusing your attention to become an active participant in the world around you. Try to become more mentally and emotionally engaged."
My response to this was, "Great! And how exactly am I suppose to do that?" The problems I see are that 1) I really don't have a preference and therefore have nothing to exert, 2) I've gotten to the point where I can daydream and still maintain a simple conversation, 3) "what is going on" is something completely idiotic (like a morale meeting) and my preference is to "tune out", and/or 4) even if I am fully aware of my emotions, the expression of my emotions, on whichever side of the spectrum they fall, always seems to come across as being excessive and therefore, generally not well received giving me further cause to contain them or ignore them out of existence.
So my question is: Has anyone figured out how to actually be more engaged, particularly emotionally, without seeming like you just opened the flood gates?
Having not actually figured it out yet, it seems like this is very much connected with discovering one's passion(s). Something that also seems to be a mystery (at least for me, maybe for all type 9's). If what you are passionate about is what you are most emotionally invested in, then how can a person that buries these emotion be passionate about anything? This is all very frustrating.