Out of the Box
I found this while I was looking for something else . . .
When you notice yourself sinking into your self-described “bitter feeling, as if I have been wasting my productive years in the wrong places or aiming at the wrong goals,” say to yourself, “Ah, I am inside a box where I am compulsively focusing on myself as an outsider, a misfit. I have bought into this belief to such an extent that I keep myself from seeing the light outside.” When you observe yourself feeling “disenchanted”, say to yourself, “Ah, I am inside a box again, playing out the belief that the grass must be greener somewhere else.”When you find yourself thinking of yourself as “odd,” say to yourself, “Ah, I’m in a box of focusing on my flaws.” When you find yourself saying, “Oh, God, I’m in this box again, I can’t bear it!” keep observing yourself until you can accept yourself as you [are].
I first looked into this a while back and I haven’t given it much thought since. But it still resonates when I read these pages. It goes a little deeper/further than Myers-Briggs, since it deals with psychological motivations, not just types in a vacuum. As noted, I’m a Four, just like these more well-known folks: Ingmar Bergman, Alan Watts, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morrisette, Paul Simon, Jeremy Irons, Patrick Stewart, Joseph Fiennes, Martha Graham, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Johnny Depp, Anne Rice, Rudolph Nureyev, J.D. Salinger, Anaîs Nin, Marcel Proust, Maria Callas, Tennessee Williams, Edgar Allan Poe, Annie Lennox, Prince, Michael Jackson, Virginia Woolf, Judy Garland, “Blanche DuBois” (Streetcar Named Desire).
I also found this on a possible link between MBTI and the Enneagram:
Is there a relationship between the nine Enneagram and sixteen MBTI types? If so, how can it best be characterized? In the course of laying the groundwork, in Part 1, for an answer to this question, we review previous hypotheses regarding the nature of the ‘triads’ in Enneagram theory and offer yet another (a ‘fifth’) approach to this crucial material.