Today at tea, I was listening to a Type Four friend describe one of her “tools” for working with herself on a daily basis.

She talked about playing the “Positivity” game. I was curious and asked her more about it, because, well, I always apply everything people say to myself to see if I think it’s useful or true. (Yeah, I know, I’m an Eight.)

My Four friend talked about how she tries to apply positivity to everything in her life, saying “yes” at least internally, if not externally, to everything that comes up in her day.

I was struggling with that a little, in terms of whether that seemed applicable to me. I mean, I have a consistent level of judgment. But is judgment the same thing as negativity? And doesn’t my judgment serve me? (Sure, I can have my negative days, but mostly, I feel pretty positive.)

This got me to thinking about what it is that I do to work with my way of being. And I realized that I play my own game, which I’ve dubbed “Alternate Stories.” It’s about surrendering my certainty about why people do the stuff they do, so that I get less triggered by it. (Read more about my Alternate Stories game here.)

So now I’m REALLY thinking…do we all have different games we play, or ways of coping with our personality types, our innate energies?

My Type Nine hubby pointed out that my Alternate Stories technique really would not be helpful to him. He’s plagued with enough possibility as it is, and figuring out what reality to believe in is already hard enough for him.

If you’re reading this, tell us: What’s your game and is it related to your enneagram type?