INTP, Anger, and 5 Self-Learned Lessons (Obligatory Ramadan Post #6)

Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs personality test?  I have.  As much as I hate to admit it, the results for me are dead on.  I've taken a couple of the online versions and have tested as INTJ about 90% of the time and INTP the rest.  Yesterday a co-worker of mine said that she was trained to administer a more extensive version of the test, so ever curious about self-realization, I agreed to take the test yet again.  The results were INTP (Introvert, Intuition, Thinking, and Perceiving), and she said the she had never seen anyone whose score was so clearly delineated. She said that based on my score there was no way to mistake my personality typing.  This all got me wondering.  

Am I rigid?

According to my personality description, no.  According to the way I feel, yes.  According to people who know me, no and yes.

I've mentioned in more than one post that I have a problem with impatience, and I do not place the blame for that outside of myself.  I am most impatient when it comes to tolerating those things I simple can't, well…tolerate.

I have a second problem.  Anger, which really opposes my true nature.  I will refrain from relating the cause of my anger, but suffice it to say that in this case, my anger is more than justified.  What is not justified is the very rigid way that I have held onto this anger; more than a year now.  I think, if I valued myself more, I would release the anger for my own sake, my own health, my own peace of mind.  Every time I think that I have, I realize that I have not.  So, I know that this means that I have work to do.

I realize that this post has been very self-centered.  On the whole, I do not wish to make these Ramadan posts about me so much as about the experience of Ramadan, but I thought that I could press home some points that I've learned and think others can learn from.

1. Honesty is the best friend of improvement, because if we are honest we'll be more willing to face our weaknesses and faults.

2. Facing weaknesses and faults is the first step to actually working on them.

3. While working on our weaknesses and faults is intrinsically a selfish act, it helps us understand humanity as a whole and to be able to willingly pardon faults in others.

4. Pardoning faults in others is the first step toward true forgiveness and acceptance.

5. Forgiveness and acceptance leave little room for anger and much more room for love.

That's what I think anyway.

Ramadan is now more than half over.  For most of us, the actual fasting part has gotten pretty tolerable and the true life reflecting process that is supposed to occur during this time has occurred.  We are in the best part of the Ramadan.  Sadly, it will be over in about 10-11 days.  I hope that I am able to fully benefit from this time of introspection, that I might be a better person for life and not just for this month.

Work to do, lessons to learn.

 

The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said:

"A strong person is not the person who throws his adversaries to the ground. A strong person is the person who contains himself when he is angry." [Al-Bukhari; Book 47, No. 47.3.12]

"Advise me! "The Prophet said, "Do not become angry and furious." The man asked (the same) again and again, and the Prophet said in each case, "Do not become angry and furious." [Al-Bukhari; Book 8, No. 137]