The renovation is on the down hill slide now with only 4 -5 weeks to go and all will be done and dusted. The experience has been wonderful. A lot of friends asked along the way “how are you coping?” and would make comments such as “I bet you are really over it now and will be glad when it is finished.” We will of course, be glad when it is finished but it really has not had an affect on us at all in terms of creating stress or anxiety, which begs the question. Why do some us find these types of situations tense and worrisome and others like us take it in our stride?
Working in the area of people behaviour and having spent some years now using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) I believe there is an answer. Our family is predominantly *P* when it comes to how we like to orientate ourselves in the world. That is, we are not into structure or order and like to be emergent in our approach to life in general; we like to see what options arise and don”t like to make plans in case something better happens along. This was validated just this morning with both our children. Our daughter madly sewing flowers onto a headband for a project she is doing on 1920″s flapper women and our son frantically searching for baby photos he can take to school for his life-line project. So as a family, we tend to leave things to the last minute which may seem a little chaotic for some, but for us living in a chaotic state is not a state that causes angst.
Our opposites however, those that are *J* need order, structure and control. Without, they can not relax nor enjoy and ultimately find themselves stressed and somewhat agitated even becoming dysfunctional.
Rusty, our 4 year old border collie cross is suffering. I have him pegged as an ISTJ. Which means he is introverted – where he draws his energy (internal or external), sensing – how he gathers information, thinking – how he makes decisions and judging – how he orientates himself in the world. Overall it means he likes routine, he likes everything in its place and a place for everything and he doesn”t like too many surprises. So having many trades people in the house and a lot of unfamiliar noises has resulted in our Rusty being in a constant state of high alert, quite anxious and seeking shelter and reassurance from his pack leaders.
The Myers-Briggs personality type indicator is based on the work of C.G. Jung and is useful simply as an awareness tool, hence the word *indicator*. It is a way of creating awareness around how we approach different aspects of life and provides an indicator of personality preferences to enable us to honour differences in one another and find the strengths in those differences as opposed to creating fear and intolerance.
The build has been a wonderful experience. A validation of where we are in the life journey. I wanted a physical dwelling to support our way of living and that is exactly what we got; with the added bonus of hassle free, on-time and nearly on-budget. Don”t you love the universe?
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