MBTI & Enneagram

INFJ, INFP and Type 4 mainly

[mbtixenneagram]

type 4 exercise

Notice when you move from reality into fantasy. What is in your fantasy world that is not in your real world? What emotions do you feel there? Spend some time in your imagination. Now breathe deeply into your belly. Feel your body. Pay attention to your feet, your legs, how your body is supported by the floor or the chair. Now breathe deeply into your chest, into your heart space. What emotions do you feel now? Try to discern your real feelings from your imagined feelings.

[mbtixenneagram]

type 4 healthy and unhealthy loops

Healthy state- Green: the need for self-understanding induces Type Fours to allow their emotions to surface and examine these emotions in order to understand themselves. When Fours achieve self-understanding, their need is satisfied and a balance is reached. 

Average state: when Fours' do not examine closely their emotions, they start to not understand themselves. This increases the need for self-understanding, which helps Fours to again examine themselves. Thus the balancing loop can help Fours to recover.

Unhealthy state- Purple: the basic fear of being defective can cause Type Fours to ignore their true selves, allow their emotions to overwhelm them, and indulge in wild fantasy about themselves. This means they will understand themselves even less, and further increases Fours' basic fear. The cycle continues to build up.

Insight: We can see from the diagram that a way to help break the control of the basic fear is to weaken the unhealthy loop. Fours can refrain from indulging in fantasy and start examining themselves. This will help Fours to understand themselves, and reduce the fear of being defective.

[mbtixenneagram]

Enneagram 4 integrating to 1

focusing upon something objective, something beyond their feelings and their imaginations 

move from the world of subjectivity to the world of objectivity

self-absorption to principled action

courage to act without reference to their feelings

no longer controlled by their feelings, but by their convictions, acting on principles rather than moods.

people of action, mobilizing their energies in the service of something beyond their personal interest and emotional gratification.

integrating Fours do not lose contact with their feelings; rather, their feelings become connected with what is happening in reality

acknowledge that there are values to which it is necessary to submit

willingly become self-disciplined

actualizing their potentials so they can contribute to the world

By being part of the world, they find a context in which to discover themselves

since they receive satisfaction from reality, they are no longer tempted to be self-indulgent, nor do they think of themselves as different from others 

integrating Fours find the freedom they have sought by desiring to do what they need to do instead of doing whatever they please in a misguided search for self

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