Where is our moral compass inside of us? We change what is "right" with different situations. We see others do it, too. How should we judge our own moral standard? If we saw ourselves easier would we see others better, too?
If we were being really honest with ourselves we would see that a lot of times our moral standards shift around depending on the situation and the people we are around. Most of it is no big deal. It is wrong to scream and shout in the movie theater but expected at sporting events. But we shift actions when the boss is around, when we are around people we love or hate, and when strangers are looking at us. So honesty demands that maybe we need to look deeper in ourselves to see what assures us of our morality in these situations. When we find our standard of measurement it may be easier to see others and why they do what they do. We may learn to be a little more fair.
The first place we are going to look is in our subconscious mind. We are not scientists remember, we are looking in the part of our thoughts that feels like the subconscious. In this part we have our perceptions, our motivations, and our character. This seems like a good place to search for our moral compass. We will start with our perceptions. Our perspective is made from everything we perceive. It is the veiws we collect, everything we have seen, understood, misunderstood, done, experienced, or been exposed to. Money (having or not) shapes our perspective. Religious experience, family life, our jobs, etc. all create our perspective. But in the subconscious mind we are looking at our subconscious perception style. Our perspective may be like others but will always be unique. but our perception, or style of perceiving, will be limited to four options.
There are four basic ways we filter what we perceive. We all have one ot these styles as our primary style and a second one to a smaller degree for balance or support of our primary style. In some of us they work together very well and it may be hard to see which is the primary. In others they are so different that we may only see the primary one most of the time. The best we can do for ourselves is to get familiar with all four styles and learn to use them all so some degree. This will only strengthen the types of veiws we are able to understand and can only make us wiser and better accepted by people whose style is different from our primary one.
We will call them by the names the Ancient Greeks used for them; choleric, melancholy, sanguine, and phlegmatic. The Greeks called them the four "humors" of the body and thought that most of the personality, psychology, and phyicial traits were due to these styles. Today we know that our personality and psychology is much more complex than four elements. It is obvious to us that our physical selves are too complex to fit this pattern too. But, in the subconscious mind our mental window that views the world is somewhat firey, earthy, airy, or watery. Let's look at the four stlyes and we will understand better.
Choleric people are the ones who look out an executive window. They see the world and everthing in it as something that needs to, and must be, managed. They help and contribute by fixing and improving everything from our problems to our personal style. They patrol the world seeking the highest standard to not just practice it but to share their knowledge of the standard with the rest of us. Choleric style is very firey and easily angered because they are results oriented and easily pushed to impatience. They have little patience with others who do not immediately, if ever, see their view of what is best. This style is very sharp. They are quick to judge style and taste because they want the world to be a beautiful place. They see that sometimes we are our own worst enemy and will sometimes take measures to try to save us from ourselves. They are not the kind to talk behind your back when telling you something face to face is possible. They see the value they have strived for and are not afraid of charging into disagreement and having their worth criticized.
The earthy perception is the melancholy one. It is solid and stable and will not shift easily or quickly. Melancholy people look out of a stabilizing window. They see the need to no get swept away with extremes. They do not see that others are that easily influenced anyway so they often avoid working at changing any one's opinions. They are a grounded standard of reason in their own view and caution others in their recklessness. They can be an anchor in a storm to those close to them or can anchor them to a steady, little changing, existence. They are comfortable managing duties and items more than playing and silliness. To themselves their sincere views are obvious, but they can deceive others by their silence. Or, really, it is the group that deceives itself. Their silence often is interpreted as agreement and like-mindedness which may not be the case at all. When the melancholy perception is presented with the opportunity (forced) to be in the spotlight they will seem slow to animate themselves to respond. Often they can shock the group by having an opinion or view that is different from what everyone else thought. This is because of their view that opinions of others cannot be easily changed and may be a waste of energy. Melancholy people hate wasting mental energy on others and use as few words as possible when communicating. Melancholy style is actually seeing and evaluating many, many details and options in their silence and when they do speak they are usually concise and making exactly the point they mean to. All of this internal, very internal, analysis uses a lot of mental energy resulting in their annoyance and offense when others demand this style to spend more mental energy on something they see as unnecessary.
Airy sanguine people are unrestricted, fun-loving, and enthusiastic. This style perceives what is funny, silly, and unconventional as most important. Sanguine people see that the world needs to avoid being stuck, still, and stagnant. They see the need for entertainment and challenges to contribute to the very necessary stirring of the too comfortable and too complacent. Their view that enthusiasm is a requirement makes them fiercely loyal to what entertains them and makes it difficult for this perception's style to resist challenges and dares; even if the dare or challenge is out of that person's capabilities. This can make them seem like fools to others. This perception sees "normal" as merely status quo and so being seen as normal is something to avoid and something that cannot go unchallenged. Boredom and uncooperativeness can be hallmarks of sanguine people. Being bored seems to be the same as being caged to these airy people. And cooperating with interests that are not their own (which they are fiercely loyal to) can seem like being put on a leash. This makes it hard for this perception to focus on any task that is outside their realm of interest.
Watery phlegmatic people perceive all sides of an issue to some extent. They naturally look to all points of view that they can conceive of. This makes having an opinion of their own very challenging to these people. This makes them easy to get along with, very diplomatic, and sometimes easy to ignore. They are very cooperative with others because they assume other people see what they see and have made their choices based on the view of the whole. It is natural for phlegmatic people to get caught up in all the views. This makes them assume that others perform better than they do. They would seem like ready followers but they are not. They are loyal followers only to those they trust. They often do prefer to follow because decision making is such a long and agonizing process for them that by the time they have weighed all of their options no one else is that interested anymore, including themselves. This makes them bland in their style and choices. They become loyal to the choices that are easy to make and never require change. The main style choice in their life is comfort. No matter what, "is it comfortable or not?" remains a relatively easy choice to make. Since they are rarely still and settled they get very upset by people who deliberately stir up emotions. When confronted with unwanted changes they often are emotionally crushed. But, when confronted by perceived threats to their comfort zone of easy choices these go-with-the-flow styled people become uncharacteristically stubborn. It is rare and often over something that seems small to others, but a phlegmatic person's stubbornness is not so much about defending the issue at hand as much as a backlash of energy in a type of view that always takes the backseat to others. When phlegmatics are stubborn the people closest to them often get angry at the sudden personality change.
Questions:
1. What perception style do you and the people closest to you have?
2. What negatives can you see in each perception style?
3. Can you think of any times a disagreement or even a fight was only based on different perceptions?
(This is a place for ideas. We will not be critics of spelling or grammar. Anyone leaving a comment has the responsibility of being as clear as they can be. Anyone reading a comment has the responsibility of understanding the message. The thought can be discussed but not typos or grammar. That's not a valid argument against thoughts anyway.)
If we were being really honest with ourselves we would see that a lot of times our moral standards shift around depending on the situation and the people we are around. Most of it is no big deal. It is wrong to scream and shout in the movie theater but expected at sporting events. But we shift actions when the boss is around, when we are around people we love or hate, and when strangers are looking at us. So honesty demands that maybe we need to look deeper in ourselves to see what assures us of our morality in these situations. When we find our standard of measurement it may be easier to see others and why they do what they do. We may learn to be a little more fair.
The first place we are going to look is in our subconscious mind. We are not scientists remember, we are looking in the part of our thoughts that feels like the subconscious. In this part we have our perceptions, our motivations, and our character. This seems like a good place to search for our moral compass. We will start with our perceptions. Our perspective is made from everything we perceive. It is the veiws we collect, everything we have seen, understood, misunderstood, done, experienced, or been exposed to. Money (having or not) shapes our perspective. Religious experience, family life, our jobs, etc. all create our perspective. But in the subconscious mind we are looking at our subconscious perception style. Our perspective may be like others but will always be unique. but our perception, or style of perceiving, will be limited to four options.
There are four basic ways we filter what we perceive. We all have one ot these styles as our primary style and a second one to a smaller degree for balance or support of our primary style. In some of us they work together very well and it may be hard to see which is the primary. In others they are so different that we may only see the primary one most of the time. The best we can do for ourselves is to get familiar with all four styles and learn to use them all so some degree. This will only strengthen the types of veiws we are able to understand and can only make us wiser and better accepted by people whose style is different from our primary one.
We will call them by the names the Ancient Greeks used for them; choleric, melancholy, sanguine, and phlegmatic. The Greeks called them the four "humors" of the body and thought that most of the personality, psychology, and phyicial traits were due to these styles. Today we know that our personality and psychology is much more complex than four elements. It is obvious to us that our physical selves are too complex to fit this pattern too. But, in the subconscious mind our mental window that views the world is somewhat firey, earthy, airy, or watery. Let's look at the four stlyes and we will understand better.
Choleric people are the ones who look out an executive window. They see the world and everthing in it as something that needs to, and must be, managed. They help and contribute by fixing and improving everything from our problems to our personal style. They patrol the world seeking the highest standard to not just practice it but to share their knowledge of the standard with the rest of us. Choleric style is very firey and easily angered because they are results oriented and easily pushed to impatience. They have little patience with others who do not immediately, if ever, see their view of what is best. This style is very sharp. They are quick to judge style and taste because they want the world to be a beautiful place. They see that sometimes we are our own worst enemy and will sometimes take measures to try to save us from ourselves. They are not the kind to talk behind your back when telling you something face to face is possible. They see the value they have strived for and are not afraid of charging into disagreement and having their worth criticized.
The earthy perception is the melancholy one. It is solid and stable and will not shift easily or quickly. Melancholy people look out of a stabilizing window. They see the need to no get swept away with extremes. They do not see that others are that easily influenced anyway so they often avoid working at changing any one's opinions. They are a grounded standard of reason in their own view and caution others in their recklessness. They can be an anchor in a storm to those close to them or can anchor them to a steady, little changing, existence. They are comfortable managing duties and items more than playing and silliness. To themselves their sincere views are obvious, but they can deceive others by their silence. Or, really, it is the group that deceives itself. Their silence often is interpreted as agreement and like-mindedness which may not be the case at all. When the melancholy perception is presented with the opportunity (forced) to be in the spotlight they will seem slow to animate themselves to respond. Often they can shock the group by having an opinion or view that is different from what everyone else thought. This is because of their view that opinions of others cannot be easily changed and may be a waste of energy. Melancholy people hate wasting mental energy on others and use as few words as possible when communicating. Melancholy style is actually seeing and evaluating many, many details and options in their silence and when they do speak they are usually concise and making exactly the point they mean to. All of this internal, very internal, analysis uses a lot of mental energy resulting in their annoyance and offense when others demand this style to spend more mental energy on something they see as unnecessary.
Airy sanguine people are unrestricted, fun-loving, and enthusiastic. This style perceives what is funny, silly, and unconventional as most important. Sanguine people see that the world needs to avoid being stuck, still, and stagnant. They see the need for entertainment and challenges to contribute to the very necessary stirring of the too comfortable and too complacent. Their view that enthusiasm is a requirement makes them fiercely loyal to what entertains them and makes it difficult for this perception's style to resist challenges and dares; even if the dare or challenge is out of that person's capabilities. This can make them seem like fools to others. This perception sees "normal" as merely status quo and so being seen as normal is something to avoid and something that cannot go unchallenged. Boredom and uncooperativeness can be hallmarks of sanguine people. Being bored seems to be the same as being caged to these airy people. And cooperating with interests that are not their own (which they are fiercely loyal to) can seem like being put on a leash. This makes it hard for this perception to focus on any task that is outside their realm of interest.
Watery phlegmatic people perceive all sides of an issue to some extent. They naturally look to all points of view that they can conceive of. This makes having an opinion of their own very challenging to these people. This makes them easy to get along with, very diplomatic, and sometimes easy to ignore. They are very cooperative with others because they assume other people see what they see and have made their choices based on the view of the whole. It is natural for phlegmatic people to get caught up in all the views. This makes them assume that others perform better than they do. They would seem like ready followers but they are not. They are loyal followers only to those they trust. They often do prefer to follow because decision making is such a long and agonizing process for them that by the time they have weighed all of their options no one else is that interested anymore, including themselves. This makes them bland in their style and choices. They become loyal to the choices that are easy to make and never require change. The main style choice in their life is comfort. No matter what, "is it comfortable or not?" remains a relatively easy choice to make. Since they are rarely still and settled they get very upset by people who deliberately stir up emotions. When confronted with unwanted changes they often are emotionally crushed. But, when confronted by perceived threats to their comfort zone of easy choices these go-with-the-flow styled people become uncharacteristically stubborn. It is rare and often over something that seems small to others, but a phlegmatic person's stubbornness is not so much about defending the issue at hand as much as a backlash of energy in a type of view that always takes the backseat to others. When phlegmatics are stubborn the people closest to them often get angry at the sudden personality change.
Questions:
1. What perception style do you and the people closest to you have?
2. What negatives can you see in each perception style?
3. Can you think of any times a disagreement or even a fight was only based on different perceptions?
(This is a place for ideas. We will not be critics of spelling or grammar. Anyone leaving a comment has the responsibility of being as clear as they can be. Anyone reading a comment has the responsibility of understanding the message. The thought can be discussed but not typos or grammar. That's not a valid argument against thoughts anyway.)
1 comment:
I am water phlegmatic, which I found interesting since my son sign is fire. I thought that my indecision, weighing all the options, trying to please everyone, came from having Libra in my chart. I also can see sanguine in my personality, (more in my youth than now). My daughter read this with me and she fit the sanguine. She is an Aries sun sign on the 10th of April. We laughed out loud when we read Choleric and melancholy. Marty fits Choleric to a tee and Alex is all melancholy. Marty is a Gemini (29th) and Alex is a Pisces (6th). Domenic kinda seems like a mix of both of those personalities. He is also a Pisces (19th).
For myself, this hit home….: They are very cooperative with others because they assume other people see what they see and have made their choices based on the view of the whole. It is natural for phlegmatic people to get caught up in all the views. This makes them assume that others perform better than they do. They would seem like ready followers but they are not. They are loyal followers only to those they trust.
And this seemed like truth too…: It is rare and often over something that seems small to others, but a phlegmatic person's stubborness is not so much about defending the issue at hand as much as a backlash of energy in a type of view that always takes the backseat to others. When phlegmatics are stubborn the people closest to them often get angry at the sudden personality change.
Anyway, thanks for the insight again. I guess my household is pretty balanced with all of the elements. Now if I could get them all to work together for the good of all we would have it made.
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