Tag: health and wellness

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More Enneagram – What’s YOUR Number?

Ok, time for more enneagram. Let’s talk about our results. What did you get?  What do you think about it?

I told you about how I took four different tests and got a different result every time. Here is what my results were:

Fast Accurate Enneagram gave me three types to choose from: type 3 (the Achiever), type 5 (the Investigator), and type 8 (the Challenger).  It offered brief descriptions of each one and left it up to me to decide.

Your Enneagram Coach told me that I was a type 3 (the Successful Achiever). On this test, I got a tied score for 3 and 8 (the Protective Challenger), but the follow up questions tipped the results to a 3. I also scored high on type 5 (the Investigative Thinker).

Truity told me that I was a type one (the Perfectionist).  I also scored high for type 5 and for type 7 in this assessment.

Eclectic Energies typed me as a 5.  My second result was a type 3.  I scored so low on type 8 in this assessment that it didn’t even show up in the results. At all.

So, after all that, I went back to the Rebel Heart Radio podcast.  I paid special attention to what they were saying about types 8, 5, and 3.  Here is what resonated with me:

Type 8, the Challenger (or Protective Challenger)

I have some of these tendencies – I can be very direct for sure. Most of the qualities of this type that resonated with me were negative behaviors not the strengths and good qualities. I kind-of interpret this type as my Virgo rising – it’s the thing where people will ask me what I think and for better or worse, I tell them.

Type 5, the Investigator (Investigative Thinker)

I got this result because I do love to learn about new things, I will get interested in something and spend time researching it.  But I don’t think that my interest in anything goes as far as the way that type 5s are described.  For example, after I finish this post, I’m probably going to be done thinking about the enneagram. I’m also not as analytical as 5s seem to get credit for. And I’m just mildly, not overwhelmingly introverted.

Type 3, the Achiever (Successful Achiever)

The description of this type resonated with me the most. Type 3s are described as adaptable, driven, image-consciousness, optimistic, industrious, self-motivated, efficient, energetic, leaders, and can be workaholics.

The core fears for this type are failing, appearing incompetent and inefficient. Their core desire is to be valuable, admired, and respected. They want to appear successful, focused and productive and tend not to stop to appreciate what they have accomplished. Sometimes it is hard for a 3 to know who they really are because they have created so many personas to fit into different situations.

I feel like I can relate to a lot of the positive and negative traits of the 3, more than any other type.

So that is my exploration of the enneagram. The big selling point for any personality typing was that if you know your type and you know the types of the people around you, you are better able to interact with them in a more positive and productive way. So now that I’ve shared, you should too.

Did you get around to trying any of the assessments from last week?  What results did you get?  What do you think about my results?  Am I more type 5 or type 8 than I’m giving myself credit for? Do you want more enneagram?Let me know what you think!

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Any Enneagram

I was thinking that I wanted to post something fun and not-so-current-events related for us all this week. So, I thought we could talk about the enneagram. Any enneagram.

Enneagram is a style of personality-typing.  Like Myer-Briggs only different. I’ve been listening to a podcast where they’ve been talking about it (Rebel Heart Radio).  They are REALLY into it. But in a fun way. I’m on the third of TEN episodes where they talk about it. Because it’s complicated.

There are nine enneagram types (numbers 1-9), then there are “wings” and “levels of integration” and all sorts of other nuances. As I have been listening to the podcast, I’ve been trying to guess my type based on how they are describing each one. They started with nine, so at first, I thought I was a nine, wing one.  Then I was sure that I was a three, wing four but not a straight three. It seems like at some point it all turns to mush, and you might be any enneagram. But I hadn’t gotten that deep into it, was it just dabbler’s skepticism?

I’m not about to let a little skepticism keep me away from a free, online personality test, so today I decided to take an enneagram test to find out.

There are a bunch of free enneagram tests online.  I started with the yourenneagramcoach.com version. The questions are pretty complicated and dense. I got the result that I thought I would, but I had just been listening to the podcast and was familiar with the language that this school uses to describe each type. I decided that I would take another version to confirm my results.

Next, I tried the truity.com test.  I liked these questions better. They were a bit more simply constructed.  I expected to get the same result as the other test, but I wound up somewhere completely different!

Ok, let’s try a third version, that will be the tiebreaker, right?  Not so fast my friend.  I took the version on eclecticenergies.com and got an another completely different answer. And I really didn’t think that I was that version. Maybe I was just getting personality test fatigue (or maybe I have an undiagnosed multiple personality disorder).  I liked the questions in this version best, they were the most straightforward.  I also liked that they give you scores on your wing.

After a break, I couldn’t help it, I decided to try again.  I tried enneagramtest.net and guess what? This time I got all the three types that I had gotten in the other three tests (this test gives you your top three and tells you to choose from the descriptions).

You can read up on enneagrams, but I think it’s more fun to take one (or more) of these tests and let them tell you:

Let me know if you decide to try any enneagram test(s) you take and what you result(s) got.  I’ll post my results in the comments in a bit.

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Wash Your Hands

Well, since it’s Health and Wellness Monday, I felt like I couldn’t skip the opportunity to tell you to wash your hands and to discuss current events.  Even though I don’t want to. I mean, this is pretty crazy guys. The word unprecedented has been going around, I certainly feel like it is. On so many levels – there is the virus itself, the public policy response, the social impact, and the unforeseen long-term economic impact.

I’m not an expert on any of these areas and I don’t want to potentially spread any misinformation, but I would like to take this opportunity to contemplate these four points. Maybe you have some better information that you can share with me in the comments.

The Virus

COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus that was unknown before the outbreak in China in December 2019. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), coronaviruses (CoV):

… are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans.

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.  Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

The risk of catching COVID-19 is still low for most people in most locations. Illness due to COVID-19 infection is generally mild, especially for children and young adults. Once someone catches a virus, their body will create antibodies and they won’t be as susceptible to the same illness again.

Most estimates of the incubation period for COVID-19 range from 1-14 days, most commonly around 5 days. It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses (a few hours up to several days).

The issue with this virus is that about 1 in every 5 people who catch it will become seriously ill and need hospital care. Older persons and persons with pre-existing medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes) appear to develop serious illness more often than others.

The virus that causes COVID-19 and the one that caused the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 are related to each other genetically, but the diseases they cause are quite different. SARS was more deadly but much less infectious than COVID-19. There have been no outbreaks of SARS anywhere in the world since 2003. I think this is notable because it implies that this will probably be a similarly short-term world health concern.

Public Policy Response

Let’s agree to that the ultimate objective of the public policy response to the COVID-19 outbreak is intended as a means to curb the spread of the virus in order to protect those most vulnerable to serious illness. Based on various things I’ve read, it seems like everyone will probably catch this, not everyone will get very sick, but those who are susceptible will get seriously ill.

The capacity of the healthcare system is limited, so the best option is to take measures to slow the spread of the virus so that there are hopefully fewer seriously ill people at any given time in an attempt to not overwhelm the healthcare system.

I’m not a public health authority by any means, I am not even a public health amateur. That being said, I am surprised by the delay and haphazard implementation of institutional response. Last week, when the ballet performance that I was planning to attend was canceled, professional sports were still playing to stadiums and arenas full of thousands of people.

As I write this, it’s as if the whole world is canceled – including entire seasons of various sports, events ranging from Coachella to the meetings of my Toastmaster’s club; schools are closed, so are museums and performing arts venues.

Social Impact

This leads to the social impact. I really wonder how the crazy grocery shopping makes any sense in terms of “social distancing.” If you are really worried about exposure, why do you have to go to the store to buy ALL THE FOOD right this moment?  When everyone else is as well. Everyone is in a hurry to get all the stuff that they need to lock themselves in their house for the next month. It strikes me as an unfortunate time to cultivate an “us against them” mentality.

This morning, as I was walking in my neighborhood, I was crossing the street when a mom and her little boy were approaching the corner.  Generally, my neighbors are friendly, and it is common to great people with a smile and a “hello.” This time was different. She not only glared at me, but she turned her back as if to shield her son from me.  Keep in mind, I was probably 20 feet away from them as I passed.

Are we going to start viewing everyone as a potential threat?  I hope not. I hope that we will remember that most of us will probably get sick, but the reason that we are practicing “social distancing” is to help the healthcare system retain its capability to provide services for those of us who have a severe response to the virus.

Long-term Economic Impact

This is what really concerns me.  Let’s say that everyone stays home for the next three, four, five, eight weeks. Healthcare organizations get a grip on things and life gets back to normal. There are still going to be economic repercussions that we can’t begin to imagine.

Here’s an example: I had some freelance work lined up for next week. It was a small project, everything is done remotely, no big deal. There is no reason that what is going on should affect this job, right?  Not so fast my friend. The publication is distributed as part of an event, which was canceled.  So, no need to worry about the print deadline. Will they reschedule the event?  Probably.  Will they still want my help on the publication?  Maybe, maybe not. Maybe now they have the time to do the work that they were going to outsource to me themselves.  I would if I was them.

That is just one example of the kinds of economic ripples I think we are going to be seeing. I don’t imagine that the majority of individuals or organizations who are having their income stream disrupted have 30, 60, 90 days of resources available. I think we are going to see all sorts of domino effects in terms of the economy in the near future.

Wrapping Up

So those are the sorts of things that I have been thinking about in terms of the current situation.

As someone who has been practicing social distancing for a while, I would like to encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to do something that you haven’t felt like you have time for in your normal life.  If you are working from home, think of the time that you aren’t spending commuting as a gift. Don’t spend your energy reading all of the things about the pandemic or binging on reality TV. Do one of those things from your “if only” pile.  Read that stack of books, clean you closets, learn about astrology or enneagrams or Norse mythology, garden, meditate, make something, write something. If you want to write a guest post for this blog, let me know.

Wash your hands, avoid touching your face, and don’t forget to be compassionate toward your fellow humans. We’re all in this together.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

In last week’s ballet review, I found an opportunity to bring up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. When I was thinking about what to post this week, I came across a draft about Maslow’s hierarchy that I had started a while ago.  Seems like the perfect time to dive in, wouldn’t you agree?

Abraham Maslow was a 20th-century American psychologist. He was one of the fathers of the humanistic psychology paradigm, which centers the concept of self.  The individual perceives the world according to their own experiences and this shapes their personality and behavior. For Maslow, foundational needs must be satisfied before an individual can seek to fulfill higher levels of existence.

MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg
By FireflySixtySeven – Own work using Inkscape, based on Maslow’s paper, A Theory of Human Motivation., CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

The bottom tier of Maslow’s hierarchy is physiological needs – food and shelter, followed by safety, then love and belonging (personal relationships, sense of community, and affiliation with both formal and informal social groups). Esteem, the fourth level in the hierarchy has to do with self-respect and self-confidence as well as the desire to be valued and recognized by others.

The hierarchy is not rigid, one does not need to be completely fulfilled one tier in order to move on to the next level. It is also not absolute – someone may be at the point at which they are striving to fulfill their self-actualization needs and may experience a deficiency in their love/belonging or even physiological needs.

The top tier if Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization. This has to do with striving to achieve our potential and satisfying out creative goals. For Maslow, self-actualization is a state in which one is able to transcend ego (this reminds me of our chakra series). It is an interesting paradox.

Scott Barry Kaufman, a professor at Columbia University has revisited and been researching Maslow’s concept of self-actualization.  On his “about” page, I noticed that he refers to his “past life” which made me smile, because I have taken to speaking about the years that I was dancing as my past life.

You can take Dr. Kaufman’s Characteristics of Self-Actualization test (in case you don’t like my hyperlinks, here is the url: https://www.scottbarrykaufman.com/characteristics-of-self-actualization-scale/). I mean, who doesn’t love a good internet personality test? This one is free and anonymous; you don’t have to put in your email address to get the results or anything. I really liked what the questions made me think about.

For Dr. Kaufman, the characteristics of self-actualization are:

  1. Continued freshness of appreciation
  2. Acceptance
  3. Authenticity
  4. Equanimity
  5. Purpose
  6. Efficient perception of reality
  7. Humanitarianism
  8. Peak experiences
  9. Good moral intuition
  10. Creative spirit

You don’t have to have a high score on most (or even many) of these characteristics to be self-actualized.  Different things are more or less important to different people, I can think of lots of people (or maybe it’s just me) who aren’t even interested in having an efficient perception of reality. But someone who scores low on all of these characteristics may be functioning in the little hunger zone, rather than taking advantage of an opportunity to address their big hunger.

Anyway, I thought this was something fun to think about on a Monday.

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Practicing Gratitude

rainbow

How was your Thanksgiving?  I hope that in addition to enjoying food, friends, and family, you also took a moment to be thankful for the nice things in your life.

For example, I am thankful for you reading, commenting, and sharing this blog.

Gratitude has become a big topic in the zeitgeist these days.  I don’t remember it being such a “thing” when I was younger.  Of course, you were supposed to practice gratitude on Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t a trendy, daily practice type thing. When I stopped to think about it, it is something that seems like it has been building over maybe the past ten years into something that is now ubiquitous.

Maybe seven years ago, I met a neuroscientist who was doing research on the health impacts of gratitude.  I don’t remember all of the methodologies, but the punchline was that there was some sort of measurable, physical benefit.  Apparently, it was a big up-and-coming area of study because now it seems like there is all sorts of scientific research about the positive impacts of practicing gratitude.

I was recently in charge of the impromptu speaking portion of my Toastmasters meeting.  The theme for the meeting was gratitude.  I did a quick google search of gratitude practices and came across the practice of a gratitude jar.  I’m not sure how you’re really supposed to do it, but for my purposes, I cut a bunch of scraps of paper and wrote random things that I would be grateful for.  Then, everyone had to draw a scrap from the jar and speak for one minute about how they are grateful for whatever it was.

sometimes I’m grateful that I have a habit of saving jelly jars

I’ll tell you what, I did not expect it to be such a challenge!  I mean there were things like “books,” and “friends,” and “vacation” in the jar.  Two things that really got recipients flummoxed were “apples,” and “cats.” 

I love apples.  I am very grateful for the delicious taste sensation of sliced apple with cheese. But there are so many delightful apple applications to be grateful for – not the least of which is apple pie.  Don’t you agree?  Somehow, this was a stumper.

And cats goes without saying.  If you can’t even pretend to be grateful for cats, I’m not sure what to tell you.

My favorite thanksgiving gratitude practice is taking a yoga class and I have a favorite memory from a few years ago.  It was a usual, beautiful southern California day and I rode my bike down to yoga on the bluff.  I was just telling Mr. Man about how the memory of that day reminds me of so many things that I am grateful for: my pink bike, beautiful California weather, and practicing yoga outside with a whole mess of characters from every walk of life while looking out at the Pacific Ocean.

Like everything else, it is important not to overdo it on gratitude on Thanksgiving and then neglect to practice it for the rest of the year. A moderate amount of gratitude on a regular basis is what is recommended for optimum results.  Try to find one little thing every day, see if you feel a difference.

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Happy Bar-versary Bar Method Long Beach!

This November marks the eight-year anniversary (or, as I like to call it bar-versary) of the Bar Method Long Beach (BMLB).  Coincidentally, the studio’s anniversary happens right around the same time as the owner, Joanna West’s birthday. So, today’s post is dedicated to celebrating both BMLB and Jo.  Who doesn’t love a two-for-one celebration?

There are those times when I just feel a little squirmy about my workout. I need to get moving, but I don’t want to do the usual things. When I get that feeling, the best thing for me to do is head to BMLB. The week of the studio’s anniversary coincided with that squirmy feeling convincing me that I needed to “get back to the bar” as they say and subsequently having my butt kicked by Jo in her Monday morning, take-no-prisoners Bar Move class.

There is something about a bar method workout.  I’ve said before how civilized it is – the lovely studio, the smooth and controlled movements, the calm-yet-authoritative manner of the instructor – it all combines to put you in a very serene and centered frame of mind, even while your thighs are quivering uncontrollably and your buns are on fire. I come out of those classes standing taller and feeling more confident in myself every time.  It is just a great experience.

Jo, the owner, is a lovely spirit; she is sweet, and kind, and generous, and tough. I always laugh at myself when I take Jo’s class because I’m always surprised at how extra hard it is.  Her classes are surprisingly tough because she is so sweet and has such a nice way about her that when you’re dying you are surprised to realize that she is kicking your butt with her soft voice and friendly smile.

She has brought the same sweetness and toughness to her business. She is a hard-working businesswoman in a highly competitive niche. What she has done that sets her studio apart from the competition is foster a sense of community. Jo makes a point of supporting other women, as clients, as employees, and as fellow businesswomen. When a regular recently launched a handbag line, Jo hosted a trunk show for her.  She’s been similarly generous to so many of us.

Jo knows what it means to be a successful woman – it means that you support other women and celebrate their successes. She sets an example for everyone at the studio to be supportive, kind, and generous to each other. Everyone celebrates each other’s triumphs (a new job, a new baby, a new haircut) and has each other’s back when times are hard (a lost job, a bad breakup, an injury). I’m not a regular anymore, but every time I’m there, I get to catch up with old friends.  Some of my bar friends are my soul sisters and I’m so thankful that BMLB brought us together.

I’m so proud of Jo for all of the hard work that she puts in to creating such a special place for women in Long Beach to come together in a very quietly understated, yet powerful way.  Thank you, Jo!

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Mind the Gap

I was walking and listening to my current favorite podcast, Earth Tribe Radio. Fiona and Jill are wonderfully wacky ladies who make my walks terribly interesting. I started listening to them because they had an episode about how cats are psychic. You know that got my attention!

The particular episode that inspired today’s post was about meditation and mindfulness. They often bring up an idea that sparks something for me to mull over while I walk and, in this episode, it was when Fiona suggested that another word to use when considering this concept is “awareness.” They expanded on that thought, talking about finding little moments throughout the day to be mindful rather than having dogmatic expectations about when and how someone should meditate.

Fiona presented her technique of “stop, drop, and go” that involves just taking a moment to appreciate what is going on around you and then continuing with what you are doing.  Jill shared a similar technique where you exhale and then intentionally pause for a moment before inhaling.  While she was describing this, the term that sprang to my mind was “mind the gap.”

I know that is not what the original “mind the gap” is about, but I think this is an effective appropriation of familiar aphorism. Why not use “mind the gap” as a mindfulness prompt? Don’t you think that it would make a great slogan for a t-shirt or a wrist tattoo? 

Minding the gap is using that pause as a moment of awareness.  I like the idea of using moments of interest throughout your day to be present.  I mean, I can’t be completely tuned in to everything all day long, I’d never get anything done!  Being open to taking moments to notice wonderful, little things here and there though can be enough to create a sense of calmness, of centeredness, of connectedness.

As I was contemplating “mind the gap” as an awareness practice, I noticed this very interesting rock and had to stop.

My initial reaction was that I wanted to grab it.  But why did I feel the need to possess this interesting rock?  I mean, I like a magic rock as much as the next girl, but I also try to respect the sovereignty of objects out in the world.  When I notice a beautiful flower, I take a photo rather than picking it.  Why shouldn’t I show this rock the same respect?  I refrained from picking up the rock but did stop and take a photo of it.

And then I was on my way.  I had minded the gap, given this rock some attention, and returned to my business.

We don’t have to change our path or our intention every time something catches our attention.  We also don’t have to go through our lives with blinders on to all the fascinating things around us. If we mind the gap, we can enjoy those small moments of appreciation without getting sidetracked.

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Who do you listen to, your body or your mind?

Recently, I have been working out less.  I listened to my body and noticed that it wanted a break.  I didn’t quit going to the gym all together, but instead of five or six days a week, it was more like two or three.  I would still set my alarm for all the usual days, but when I got out of bed (I made myself actually get out of bed before the decision was made), I would listen to my body if it told me that it didn’t want to exercise that day.  The trick is to actually get out of bed before deciding to tap out. Otherwise, I couldn’t tell if my body really wanted a break or my brain was trying to trick me.  I find my brain lies to me a lot.

Aside from the get out of bed test, the reason that I could tell that I was listening to my body and not my brain is that I was still feeling good even though I wasn’t exercising as much.  I tend to get really antsy when I don’t get enough exercise, sometimes I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin. I was able to focus and be productive and I was still moving enough to keep my back from getting too angry with me, so it was clear that my body was still getting what it needed.

Now this is no way to achieve one’s fitness goals, but it is a good strategy to keep things copacetic if you are of a certain age.  I am still listening to my body and I am starting to feel like I need to ramp back up to my higher activity level.  I can feel it in my arms a lot right now. 

Thinking about how I need to listen to my body instead of my brain when it comes to exercise led to contemplating other areas of my life in which my brain likes to lie to me. No surprise, food is the next biggie.  When I listen to my body, I tend to eat more fruits and veggies.  I don’t get as hungry and I don’t get tummy aches.  When I eat what my brain wants, it tends to be more white food – things with a lot of sugar, things that are processed … things like French fries.  My brain always tries to convince me that I want to eat fried food.

It’s funny to think that I shouldn’t listen to my brain.  Isn’t that where my smart is supposed to be after all?  It can be more challenging to hear what my body has to say to me, especially when my brain is shouting and jumping up and down. But when I am quiet and listen, it never steers me wrong.