by Randy Son of Robert

Everyone has many personality labels yet most of us resist being labeled. Over a lifetime, we each will have hundreds of labels because we have unique life experiences. The main way that we learn our labels is from others. We generally resist these suggestions as it feels that the labels have a negative connotation. Yet most of our labels are positive and negative at the same time.

We each love to learn about ourselves. But we pretend that we don’t want to know. It is the same maneuver we use to view a group picture that includes us. While oohing and aahing over all the other group members, we are secretly gazing at ourselves.

Most of the labels used by counselors are unknown by clients. The Changemaker Test, which is meant as a vehicle for self-discovery, includes the labels used in NLP (neurolinguistic programming), birth order, family roles, emotional energies, and MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator). Also included are the labels for the Big Five Test, enneagram, and transactional analysis.

Changemaker is committed to the basic belief that each person has the opportunity for self-discovery and the potential for self-healing. As individuals, we sometimes choose paths that may be harmful to us. To get off that path and onto a new road takes exploration and experimentation.

The Changemaker Test offers education for self-discovery as Changemaker believes that the change within a person involves the courage to see (insight) and the courage to act (action).

The Changemaker Test will teach anyone 10 labels about themselves. Therefore, by using the labels to change themselves, the changemaker is the person who decides to learn and make the change happen.

Does a personality label mean that a person will always act according to that personality trait? No! A label is only a personality indicator. For the Changemaker Test, in choosing your labels, go with your first choice. Don’t try to figure out the “best” answer. There aren’t any best answers. As we stated before, each label has positive and negative aspects.

On the road of self-discovery, remember to look for guidance among persons that are on their individual path of growth. If someone wants to tell you who to be, that person is not growing but is trying to avoid growth by “changing” you. Some people call this codependency.

Yet we all are probably codependent at one time or another. It happens sometimes that another person gets more of our attention that we are giving to ourselves. But the codependent uses concern to gain power over others in the classic position of “top-dog”. Shared power is the only ingredient in relationships that determines how healthy the union is.

Reciprocity shows respect and dignity in relationships. Emily Dickinson wrote in one of her poems—“the soul selects her own society-then shuts the door”. The power in a relationship is divided or debated from that first glance. The people that we meet and with whom we instantly feel comfortable are those with whom we share the power.

Unfortunately what many call “excitement” is the game of control. The Course in Miracles suggests that our main feelings are love and fear. If we aren’t offering love, we are trapped in our fear.

When You Find the Buddha in the Middle of the Road-Kill Him is the wise title of a good book by Sidney Kopp. No one knows what is better for anyone but that person.

We each have our own answers. Even those trained in counseling techniques can only see what is revealed. Tendencies may be seen and certainly personality indicators will be there. But the work of change is a person’s individual choice.

The test for evaluating our motives when we want to deceive ourselves about our “loving” motives is that when we come in the spirit of love, there will be no resistance. If tension exists in an exchange, there is a power struggle.

The resistance proves that we are coming in a spirit of fear. If we are in a tug of war with someone, we can let go of our end of the rope. With the freed energy from letting go, we can then join the “enemy” to find a solution to the problem.

At the heart of a loving home is peace. Peace comes from “losing” battles and winning the war. “O Lord, let there be peace and let it start with me.”

About the Changemaker Test

Using A Personality Test for Dating

The Enneagram Teaches Your Underlying Beliefs

Using the John Holland Test to Find Your Career

Prosperity Pie: How to Relax About Money and Everything Else

SARK

ISBN 0-7432-2920-7

Amazon link

SARK (which is short for Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) has written several highly-creative books. They are published in her handwriting—or, in someone’s handwriting—and contain drawings carttons, lists, etc. I love mind-mapping so this book appealed to me as a way to remember to color outside the lines.

Prosperity Pie, as explained in the author’s foreword, means plenty of everything, with enough to share. As with most books that guide us toward greater self-discovery, she begins by talking about our inner critics. She states that as soon as we improve in area of our lives that our inner critics have been harping on, the critics start harping on something else.

Some of her statements from this book are:

1) Whatever has happened to us has contributed to us.

2) You are enough. You have enough. You do enough.

3) You are not alone.

4) Even when we are surrounded by and with love, we must still face ourselves alone every day. How much love gets inside?

5) As humans, we need to give ourselves mental, physical, emotional and spiritual care on a daily basis.

6) There are specific ways to practice healthy self-talk, and I frequently use writing to calm and center myself.

7) Challenges help us grow in prosperity and every challenge is a teaching.

We can relax into our tension.

The chapter headings for Prosperity Pie are: self—challenges—love—work—money—time—inspiration—teachers—adventures—and, prosperity pie.

More about her and her work can be found at www.planetsark.com.

The website is as creative as her books. Enjoy!

]]> http://answersbyemail.com/2008/09/prosperity-pie/feed/ 0 http://answersbyemail.com/2007/02/overview-of-changemaker-blogs-2/ http://answersbyemail.com/2007/02/overview-of-changemaker-blogs-2/#comments Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:41:57 +0000 lberman954 http://lberman954.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/overview-of-changemaker-blogs-2/ “It is the courage to be open and loving which is the manifestation of underlying strength and power. And it is only in embracing the possibility that you have a Higher Self that knows how to love, that knows truth within, that is truly powerful, that you can begin to face and dismantle the false beliefs of the protected self, the ego. You can’t begin to look at these and deal with them if you don’t believe there’s anything else. You can never move into the feeling of personal power until you recognize truly that there’s a peaceful place within you that is already there, that doesn’t have to be fixed.” Jordan and Margaret Paul

It is estimated that by the time we reach adulthood we have saved 20,000 hours of negative self-talk. Learning to control the mind and stop this onslaught requires learning skills to overcome this inner negativity.

Changemaker is a blog with the purpose of teaching the basics of personality labels so that anyone interested in helping others will have a book to be used as the foundation for self-discovery groups. The blog includes posts by me, Kathy Berman, a woman in recovery from alcoholism since 1976. I also was a counselor in the field of substance addiction and a marketer for mental health companies, so I have a multi-faceted view of what the addiction and mental health fields offer.

The purpose of this blog is to share my experience, strength and hope to anyone who would like to help others to better understand themselves. My dream is that others will have the courage to help others by sharing their experience, strength and hope.

Over a 40 year period, I have worked in 8 different careers from teacher, education specialist, insurance/investment sales, addiction counselor, marketing specialist, manager of parks, manufactured home sales to author. The greatest gift from having had diverse jobs is the reality that no one knows a job before they begin. We learn jobs on the job.

Armed with the confidence that doing is learning, anyone who has a compassion for others can help them to discover themselves. Groups are the recognized best method for people to gain information and acceptance from others. One of the main underpinings of Alcoholics Anonymous is that all members are peers. Anyone has the opportunity to share and to be heard.

In Changemaker groups, the group leader leads only by getting the group together. By caring for others, the group members can learn as well as teach self-discovery. The group leader/leaders may choose to charge or ask for donations to pay for the meeting room and materials. To lead education groups, Changemaker groups, the only requirement for the business is to have an occupational license to run a business. Changemaker groups are not therapy groups so no other license is required.

The Mental Health Institute claims 20% of the population suffers from mental illness. These people generally can benefit from mental health counseling. In America, with all our wealth, many of these poor souls wander our streets as the homeless. They have no medical insurance so menat health care is a sometime thing. Since most of the population isn’t mentally ill, education groups can be a great source of comfort and growth for those not needing therapy.

Addiction treatment by the medical model means that an addict is “sick” and that someone else knows how to get that addict “well”. In reality, each person has a part of themselves that is perfect and was given to them at birth. Changemaker believes in helping addicts and anyone interested in healing to get in touch with this perfect part and build on that to reach deep levels of self-confidence and gratitude for this life.

The self-discovery model of healing believes that by using the tools of personality profiles as well as methods of spirituality used in many cultures, each seeker can find the hidden springs of wellness inside.

Changemaker offers a test designed to provide personality indicators–called labels–so anyone has some tools about themselves that they can study to see why they make the decisions and choices they make. Then from this foundation of self-discovery, he/she can continue exploring and recreating themselves through her/his lifetime.