Have you ever felt like you don’t belong? Like nobody understands you? Like you don’t know who you are? Well, you’re not the only one! At some point in their lives, almost everybody struggles with their identity and understanding who they truly are. This week, our DTS class embarked on a journey of self-discovery, diving into the depths of what it means to be a Child of God as well as how He has created us each into a unique being. We analysed our personalities and our brains and uncovered the direct correlation between health and positive thinking.
Before completely analysing ourselves, Anne Sloan outlined the way in which our World View shapes how we see others and how we see ourselves. It was a common conclusion in our class that we often find ourselves falling into the bad habit of comparing others strengths with our weaknesses. This negative stream of thought is neither uplifting or beneficial. Rather we should delight in the gifts of others and continue to perfect those God has instilled in us. This thought was further revolutionized through the saying “the way God made us is the gift God gave us. The way we use these abilities is our gift back to God.” The revelation this presented enabled us to grasp the concept that we were all formed delicately and intricately by the Grand Designer to do good things for His will.
In accepting this truth and recognising our personal filters, we are able to comprehend why we do the things we do and why we perceive people in a particular way. This can clearly be seen through the analogy of a tree. The foundation of a tree is its roots. In the same way, the foundation of our life is our worldview. The strongest external part of the tree is the trunk. Similarly, our values provide a strong structure for the branches that are our policies and life principles to grow from. Of these things, we then formulate our actions and behaviours. Therefore, our actions are more than just that. They are a reflection of our values shaped by our world view.
Furthermore, we discovered how to incorporate these core foundational truths with each of our personality types according to the Myers Briggs Test. There are sixteen different personality types. We each gained a new insight into the innate processing that is behind our thinking and reasoning. It was very interesting to see how the different personalities contrast and great clarity was gained in understanding why everyone acts the way that they do. The fundamental truth to be gained from all this is that each person has a preference for a particular personality type. This preference, however, is not an excuse for our behaviour or actions. There is always a choice, and sometimes our preference is not the best option.
This week truly has been action packed! Having finished a week full of new understandings and self-awareness, we are now heading off to Cornwall to put our personalities to the test and reach out to the local community through acts of service. Via the knowledge of our own unique identities and the processing that subliminally occurs in our minds, we now look forward to walking in an enhanced awareness of the power of positive and negative thought patterns.