Growth for Type 9: The Mediator
Basic Essential Practice: From this grounded, receptive, openhearted and non-judgmental stance, notice how your energy spreads out and is pulled by the many environmental claims upon you all fueled by your driving energy of inertia or inattention to yourself. This stems from your core belief that to be loved, valued, and secure you must blend in and go along to get along and not make a big deal of yourself. Can you stop and breathing back and in realize that what is important to you – your own priorities, needs, and desires – have gone into the background. And from this grounded place in your body’s gravitational center in your belly pull your attention back inside, collect it, and connect to yourself. Then put your energy and focus on your boundaries, your limits, and your priorities. This means coming to love yourself equal to all others, not more than or less than others. From here you can truly take right action that encompasses self and others. Remind yourself to notice the effectiveness of what you can do with this clarity of focus. And remind yourself to notice how others respond when you allow yourself to speak up for yourself and love yourself all the while caring equally about others and their well-being.
Additional Key Themes for Reflection: Simply stop for a minute or so 3-4 times a day to center and reflect on one of the following:
Attention being pulled by multiple environmental claims. Simply stop to notice how your focus of attention tends habitually goes out to others and environment needs. Use this as a clue to come back and focus on your own priorities and needs.
Resistance in your body. Do your best to stop and notice where your resistance manifests in your body. Practice realizing that this digging in means there is something of important to you or you wouldn’t have resistance. Then explore what of importance underlies this resistance.
Seeking comfort and avoiding conflict. Stop and notice how disharmony and conflict upset you and where this is in your bodily felt sense. Use this to remind yourself that conflict is naturally occurring and the issue is dealing with conflict constructively. Then do your best to manifest this principle in your life.
Short Reflections for Reclaiming the Essential Quality
With openhearted kindness toward yourself simply practice several times a day for a minute or so saying and living one of the following each for a few days at a time. Do these all with the receptive energy encompassed in the “may I.” Recall that the higher quality or virtue for type Nine is right action, meaning action that represents the self equally to all others.
- May I focus on what is important especially in the face of discomfort and conflict.
- May I discover my intention and purpose.
- May I be aware of my inertia toward myself, knowing that right action comes from valuing myself the same as I value others.
- May I notice that resistance and passivity are signals that there is something important inside.
- May I remember my priorities and my value.