"Rich Inner Life?"
I swear, on tons of personality profiles, there's one statement that always confuses me: "has a rich inner life". What on Earth does that even mean? Do some people have rich outer lives, like hyperactive extroverts/certain people I know? How does that differ from a rich inner life? What if your life is just rich all around? Do some not have rich lives at all - are theirs thin like broth? And what does that make my life? Thick as clotted cream? And what does a rich life even entail?
Well, I don't really have the answers to any of these questions: I only have myself, which should be enough to try and puzzle some out.
To me, the difference between an inner and outer life is where that life is. It's a bit like introversion and extroversion. Introverts gather their energy from feelings, ideas, thoughts: things that are, well, internal. Extroverts recharge from interacting with outside stuff: people, objects, places. So with that information, a "rich internal life" would have a plethora of thoughts, feelings, emotions, possibly fantasy worlds and the like.
Since I supposedly have "a rich inner life", I can offer an example. One can't really tell from the outside, but my room is set up in a very purposeful way. Everything is arranged so the energies of one object complement that of another object, so there isn't too much of one kind of energy in any one part of the room. Every poster, object, and color has a symbolism, a hidden richness that only I can see. My room's "feng shui", I suppose (although it's kinda more than that, I feel) makes cleaning my room a major chore. Everything has to be arranged with consideration to the harmony of the room. And if I'm too lazy to move something, I'll assign it some meaning so I don't have to move it, haha.
Here's a more specific example, one that I'm very fond of. On the wall right next to my pillow is a poster of a tiger. The cat doesn't have a name (the nearby lizard's name is Hermie), but it has an important job. The cat guards me while I'm sleeping, amongst other things. Not that I really sleep a lot anyway, but my psychic guards are easier to penetrate, I feel, during the night. You know all that stuff about things that go bump in the night? I swear they infiltrate my dreams or something. At any rate, night is perfect for ruminating, for thinking deep thoughts and doing mental jumping jacks. The tiger keeps me from totally losing it. It's difficult to explain, but the cat is really important. Of course, when my mom naps on my bed she always wakes up and starts cuz tiger is always looking at the viewer like (s)he's gonna bite your head off. But the tiger is like a gargoyle on old churches: (s)he keeps the bad spirits out.
Plus, the tiger is directly across the room from my dried corn necklace dangling off a section of tree stump with an eagle on it. This is also purposeful: according to many ancient cultures, birds (particularly ravens, I think) are messengers to the spirit world. Which just rocks in general, because the spirit world just rocks in general. Anyway, the corn necklace dangling off the wood also honors the Native Americans, who I used to be obsessed with when I was younger. I studied many Native American religions and admired their lifestyles greatly. I felt like that particular journey needed recognition, since the Native American peoples made up a decent-sized chunk of my study of theology when I was about 9 or so.
So the tiger and the eagle, along with the window being across from some random nature-themed mini-posters on my closet, channel a crossroads of living energy. This energy fuels my room and myself, which is one of the reasons I spend a lot of time in my room. This energy also is conserved, because my room is green. Green is one of the primary colors of life, so it sort of keeps the energy from dissipating out the door like air conditioning or something. Plus green is my favorite color ;-)
There are tons of these little symbolic placements of stuff in my room. It's a little ridiculous actually. But the best part about assigning meaning to random crap in my room is that I can change it whenever I want and to whatever I want. And nobody can tell, either. Mwahahahaha.
A rich external life would be teeming with experiences from the outside world. I think I know several people like this, but since I'm not personally like that, I can't fabricate an example since I'd be putting words in their mouths.
Well, I don't really have the answers to any of these questions: I only have myself, which should be enough to try and puzzle some out.
To me, the difference between an inner and outer life is where that life is. It's a bit like introversion and extroversion. Introverts gather their energy from feelings, ideas, thoughts: things that are, well, internal. Extroverts recharge from interacting with outside stuff: people, objects, places. So with that information, a "rich internal life" would have a plethora of thoughts, feelings, emotions, possibly fantasy worlds and the like.
Since I supposedly have "a rich inner life", I can offer an example. One can't really tell from the outside, but my room is set up in a very purposeful way. Everything is arranged so the energies of one object complement that of another object, so there isn't too much of one kind of energy in any one part of the room. Every poster, object, and color has a symbolism, a hidden richness that only I can see. My room's "feng shui", I suppose (although it's kinda more than that, I feel) makes cleaning my room a major chore. Everything has to be arranged with consideration to the harmony of the room. And if I'm too lazy to move something, I'll assign it some meaning so I don't have to move it, haha.
Here's a more specific example, one that I'm very fond of. On the wall right next to my pillow is a poster of a tiger. The cat doesn't have a name (the nearby lizard's name is Hermie), but it has an important job. The cat guards me while I'm sleeping, amongst other things. Not that I really sleep a lot anyway, but my psychic guards are easier to penetrate, I feel, during the night. You know all that stuff about things that go bump in the night? I swear they infiltrate my dreams or something. At any rate, night is perfect for ruminating, for thinking deep thoughts and doing mental jumping jacks. The tiger keeps me from totally losing it. It's difficult to explain, but the cat is really important. Of course, when my mom naps on my bed she always wakes up and starts cuz tiger is always looking at the viewer like (s)he's gonna bite your head off. But the tiger is like a gargoyle on old churches: (s)he keeps the bad spirits out.
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| Rawr. |
So the tiger and the eagle, along with the window being across from some random nature-themed mini-posters on my closet, channel a crossroads of living energy. This energy fuels my room and myself, which is one of the reasons I spend a lot of time in my room. This energy also is conserved, because my room is green. Green is one of the primary colors of life, so it sort of keeps the energy from dissipating out the door like air conditioning or something. Plus green is my favorite color ;-)
A rich external life would be teeming with experiences from the outside world. I think I know several people like this, but since I'm not personally like that, I can't fabricate an example since I'd be putting words in their mouths.
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