Tips for How Your Personality Type Can Cope Right Now!

Tips for How Your Personality Type Can Cope Right Now!

No matter what your situation in the past weeks, you’ve probably not been able to avoid the inundation of advice coming at us about how to cope with being stuck inside  due to the Corona virus – and people do need help in such a stressful time.

But humans aren’t one-size-fits-all beings!

Different personality types have been experiencing this situation differently, and need advice tailored for their unique nature.

Otherwise what can happen is that they try following the general advice being handed out, and it doesn’t work for them.

But worse, it also can make them feel bad about themselves, because they think it’s their failure, when the truth is that advice was just not a fit for them.

This is where the spiritual side of Chinese medicine can come to the rescue!

Chinese medicine is personalized medicine, not a one-pill-fits-all kind of care like much of Western medicine is.

Over thousands of years of research, their ancient physicians found that you could take a whole group of people with the same illness but each would have gotten the illness for very different reasons.

So each would receive a different treatment based on their individual needs.

And it’s the same with how we’d create a treatment to deal with life problems such as having to shelter-in-place.

There are 5 different personality types, based on the 5 Elements of Chinese medicine, and each will react to the current situation in different ways – and have unique needs for how to cope.

Water Element Personality

These are highly creative people with excellent imaginations and powerful intuitive abilities.

They don’t think in linear ways but instead rely on an inner knowing, a gut instinct, for the choices they make.

Water people are the ones who come up with an amazingly innovative idea, but when asked how they figured it out, their reply is, “I don’t know, it just came to me.”

One way for Water types to stay in balance during this time is to let their creative juices flow.

This enforced solitude actually creates a perfect environment for them to let loose and explore in ways that their usual schedule may not allow.

But if they’re stuck inside with family, we shouldn’t expect them to be too cuddly! They need to find solitude or they’ll start to feel smothered.

So the rest of the family shouldn’t take it personally if they go off alone for a while!

Wood Element Personality

This is an action-oriented, hard-working, and driven type of person, their focus always on results.

Lifelong students, they always challenge themselves to learn new skills they can use in practical ways.

Wood types have a strong need to stay physically active, so being cooped up at home can leave them feeling incredibly frustrated.

As their tension builds, if they can’t find some way to blow off stream, they can make impulsive decisions, or get into angry arguments, for instance.

The remedy here is to find ways to stay active, both physically and mentally.

So any kind of daily exercise they can manage to do is a must. The more they work out, the better.

But they also need to keep their excellent left brains busy – work on puzzles, or tinker with tools, or focus on plans for the side business they’ve wanted more time to brainstorm about!

Fire Element Personality

The Fire person is lively and fun, with a great sense of humor!

They drop little jokes into every conversation, and they just naturally lift others’ spirits and create a light-hearted mood wherever they go.

But Fire people need lots of stimulation and they hate to be bored!

And one way they stay stimulated is with lots of social interaction, so you can imagine they’ve been going a bit crazy lately, having to stay in isolation.

So for this type of person to manage, they’ll need to talk to friends and family far more than just once or twice a day.

They should take lots of breaks from work to chat with people in various ways all throughout the day – text, FaceTime, phone calls, emails, zoom meetings, whatever they can, as often as they can.

It doesn’t have to be about anything important – just a quick check-in to say hi and have a laugh!

Earth Element Personality

This type is the giver, highly responsible and devoted to supporting others.

Relationships are all-important to them, and they form lifelong bonds, personally and professionally.

Kind and caring, their first thought is always some version of “How can I help you?” This is the person you can trust to be a true-blue friend, who’ll always step up when you need them!

But Earth people tend to worry too much, and one way they often seek comfort from all their worries is with food – Earth types tend to be emotional eaters.

This is not the right time for them to try to be more disciplined!

So Earth people should allow themselves to find comfort in food right now, as long as it’s healthy. And because they love togetherness, this is a great chance for the whole family to cook together.

Skip the Cheetos and ice cream in favor of some wonderful, filling, family-made meals!

Metal Element Personality

The Metal type is highly conscientious and detail-oriented, so everything they do is always beautifully done.

In fact, these people are the least likely to be stressed right now because they’re introverts and love to be alone in their own homes.

And because they’re very sensitive to other people’s energy, having a reason to stay home and be away from the crowds is paradise for them.

But it’s a different story if they’re stuck inside with lots of family or roommates!

Metal people need more space than other types, so if home feels crowded, this can really stress their system.

The best remedy here is for them to be able to get away from everyone at least once a day, ideally in a room with 4 walls and a door for total privacy.

That way, they’ll be able to recover from feeling overwhelmed by the energy of other people, and their stress will melt away!

Did you recognize yourself in any of the descriptions above?

Did you recognize yourself in more than one of them?! If so, that’s not a problem, because we all have some of these characteristics in our nature. Nobody is a one-note song!

No matter what you’ve been going through, I hope these tips will help you de-stress and be kind to yourself right now. This is a time the likes of which we’ve never known before.

And despite the terrible impact on our world, there are also new possibilities opening here, that can mean our lives change in positive ways in the future.

There are many aspects of our old way of being that we may not want to return to – Let’s stay open to the possibilities.