Since I've been teaching Meyers-Briggs for about a year now, the various types are starting to become clearer to me. Now, when I am interacting with someone, I take the time to observe what they are telling me and how it is being told - visually, kinesthetically, and verbally.
What I'm recognizing in the process is my own intuition, which, I suppose, is what allows me to be so observant. I never really understood what it meant to say, "my intuition tells me" and I still have a long way to go to fully understand. Intuition is seeing patterns and drawing conclusions. In the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator, the opposite is sensing - using your five senses to take in and process information. Of course, most people are a mix of both.
My intuition is very strong and now I am learning to listen to it and responding. When I don't, my body and mind step-it-up and say to me, "take care of yourself." This was the case when I was living in the UK and had developed all kinds of phobias. It wasn't the UK itself that was causing these, it was my personal situation, being frustrated and feeling out of control. The conflict in my psyche was playing out. The more I tried to make myself OK with my situation, the more phobias I developed. As soon as I removed myself from the situation, the phobias disappeared.
This summer I have been somewhat hiding away, being introverted. Yes, I am extremely extroverted, but as one of my extroverted students pointed out, our type needs downtime. All the energy I am putting into teaching is demanding that I find balance in decompressing. At this point that is happening when I sit in front of the computer in the wee hours of the morning and the late hours of the night grading papers, creating lesson plans and responding to emails. Really, these are not great ways of relaxing my intuition tells me.
Earlier this week I had a strong reaction to a new friend's communications via email. We haven't known each other very long but we are developing strong rapport quite quickly. There was something "off" in the email and it impacted me. I was using my intuition, looking at our communication patterns, and my reaction was "something is out of sync." All week I let my intuition ponder my reaction. I kept expecting an email from my friend saying that something is wrong. When I did get an email, my friend told me they are having a difficult time this week. I knew I was recognizing a "blip" in the pattern. All I could do was respect their situation, where in the past I would have tried to solve it.
Now I head off to class where I am substituting for my co-teachers and will have 75 students to "read".
