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Sunday, December 14, 2014

15 minutes of mind mapping

I am a pile of mush mentally right now, but it's a busy mush. I thrive on organization because it quiets my overstimulated brain, but when it gets overstimulated, it can't organize. I've had a bit of trouble with this since about the time I got pregnant with my third. I like to pretend "mommy brain" isn't permanent but...if this mama's brain is any indicator, the jury is still out.

What do I need in order to sort out all of these thoughts? Well, a little time to process would be nice, which I just so happen to have right now. Ever since the move, Dennis and I have made it a priority to 1) Take a sabbath each week (easier now that he doesn't work all day on Sundays) and 2) Each take a couple of hours away from everyone to write/read/pray and enjoy silence on our sabbath.

It's been amazing. As I've recently rediscovered my strong introvert tendencies, I could probably use some time like that every other day, but that's a tad unrealistic, so I'm happy to take what I can get.

I've been studying my personality type a bit this week, too, and that's what reminded me just what an introvert I am. I am an introvert who loves to be around people, but an introvert nonetheless. I took a Myers-Briggs test (free online, but it was pretty accurate, and I've taken the official one a few times before) and I've been studying my personality type - INFP. Introverted, iNtrospectice, feeling, perceiving. Very insightful, and it makes me understand myself a little better. Basically, I'm an open minded hippie who loves new ideas. Also, I take a while to open up to people, but when I do, there's a lot there, I'm very loyal and whatnot. I'm terrible at mundane and not too big on details. Anyway, I already knew most of that, but there's some good advice out there for parenting, career, relationships, etc. based off of personality type, so that's been fun. I even found a website dedicated to decorating in light of your personality type (first step - buy fair trade. I'm not kidding. Pretty accurate, eh?)

I also found out that INFPs are very rare (4% of the population) and tend to also be HSPs (highly sensitive persons). I already knew that. It means that too much stimulation at once is detrimental to my state of mind. For example, bunched up fabric (blankets, pants dragging the floor, etc.) is like fingernails on a chalkboard, as is trying to have a conversation with a tv or music on in the background.  There's a lot of parenting advice out there for HSPs because, as you can imagine, it can be challenging to keep the noise/touch/sight/smell sensations to a minimum with small kids around. Anyways, there's some great books out there, I hear, but Dr. Google has a lot of useful stuff, too, if you want to just scratch the surface.

One of the main recommended careers for INFPs is writing, on account of their idea filled brains being in conflict with their fear of sharing those ideas because they also don't like to offend people. I can't relate to that at all. :)

Anyway, I like to write because, no matter what I write, it makes the mush start to take on a structure. That's why I've always written. I thought I was going to make some lists or something today, but this processing of my personality type was good, too.

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