For our first online video, I sneaked a quick shot of our type Two friend Meegan. Being a Two, she kept being goofy when she knew the camera was on her, so I grabbed a shot when she wasn’t paying attention to me, hoping to get her authentic energy on film.

I think this shot captures her vivaciousness, humor, and perky relational connectiveness very well.

And for those who will wonder, yes, I absolutely did get her permission to use this. (Hey, I’m an Eight. Sometimes I find it’s easier to try something first and get permission afterward.)

Many thanks to Meegan M! You are a charmer, doll.

I just helped Dina buy her first MacBook. She is ridiculously excited. In fact, she even got the Apple store guy who served us feel excited.

When I first met Dina four years ago, she was a talented dance teacher who didn’t even own an iPod. Now, with our type Five connecting points pinging off each other, we’re both techie’d out!

As you can see in this picture, she’s pretty dang jazzed. I’ll bet part of her believes she could launch the Space Shuttle with that thing.

There’s a way in which you might not expect me (an Eight) and Dina (a Seven) to be so into computers and websites, social media and all that. But I think as our generations become more intertwined with computers, our types evolve to take advantage of the new playground.

I suspect for Dina, it’s another kind of dance floor. And for me, it’s a whole world I can control. Heh.

As a Seven and an Eight both comfortable with our inner Fives, I gotta say…look out, world!

I’m laying in the sun in my backyard and my mind is sooo busy: what will I wear tomorrow night? I think I need some water. Should I go get another cup of coffee? Eeegads.

Exhale. Life at point Seven. So mental. I’m noticing, breathing, accepting, and…BLOGGING!?

Too funny! My confession today: I’m a thinkaholic and an exclamation mark junkie!

After Dina’s Nia dance class today, one of the regular students had an epiphany. LouAnn, a type four, came up to me and shared the following:

Pain is something that exists to bring us back to the present moment. It just wants our attention and all we need to do is go inside and embrace it like a newborn babe, with love!

I forget this sometimes.

(See her written version in the comment book photo on the left.)

I told her that I forget, too. As an eight, I can ignore my own pain until it tries to break down all my doors.

Thanks for sharing, LouAnn!

Rachel, my business partner, is a type eight. As I was getting to know her, I hypothesized that she was several other types before I realized that she was an eight.

I didn’t think an eight would cry during a conflict.

Rachel would occasionally get teary in conflict with me when things got intense. So, I asked her about it.

She said,

I’ve come to realize that I cry when I get angry. I think there’s a way that it’s the path of least resistence inside me. My true anger feels like its so intense that it would destroy everything in its path, so I keep it from running rampant. But with that restriction comes frustration and grief, so the tears you see are a mix of me being frustrated, sad about the conflict, and (if I dig deep enough) scared. When I was younger, I would actually feel my throat close up when I’d get into conflict with people. I can easily get mad when I’m on my own, and feel safe expressing it because no one is going to get hurt. But when I’m trying to work it out with someone I’m angry at, it gets all balled and twisted up because I’ve come to believe that if my anger came out in full force, I would have no friends or family left. My anger would sever all my connections and I would be alone. Hence, tears. As an 8, some part of me feels emminently destructive.

I find this information interesting and so helpful. My initial stereotype about type eights was that they’d just be big and loud in conflict, and I’d get bowled over. I also believed that they wouldn’t show their vulnerabilty, for fear that they’d be revealing their weakness to me. Getting to know Rachel challenged my assumption.

Now I wonder about gender difference in type eight, if type eight men ever experience anything like this, or if tears show up more in female type eights simply because of cultural expectation and norms. And I’m curious about ways that Rachel and I can have healthy expressions of anger shared in our relationship. Now that we’re talking about it, it’s likely we’ll find them.

So here’s the tip: Don’t rule out type eight just because you see tears and easy vulnerability. Be curious and look deeper. You may be surprised by what you find.