I read somewhere that you could tell if a person was an extrovert or an introvert by where they looked when they were concentrating.
Let’s do a little experiment.
Quickly now! When was the last time you had a really good pastry?
Did you have to think about that? If so, where did you look? Up? Down?
Wait. You didn’t close your eyes, did you? Because now that I think about it, I don’t recall what it means if you close your eyes while thinking.
According to whatever it was I was reading at the time – and with my library, it could be anything from Home Dentistry Saves Money! to 101 Things To Do With Questionable Mushrooms – extroverts look up while seeking answers while introverts look down.
I suspect we all have our methods, our peccadilloes regarding concentration. I have a nephew, for example, who, even as a baby, rubbed his thumb against his first two fingers while searching for an answer.
“Would you like some milk, Liam?”
“Hmm.” Rub rub rub. “Yeh. Yike mewk.”
Anyway, this all came back to mind the other day in yoga. We were working our way into a balancing pose (“place both hands on the floor, rest your ribs on your elbows, and shoot your legs out behind you, allowing them to float up and hover six inches above the floor”) and invited to concentrate on our “drishdi”, a point of intense focus.
And that’s when I noticed that I have a drishdi and that it has been the same all my life: slightly up and to the left. In my world, the answers are just over that hill, just over there to the left.
The answers are just over there.
Turns out I’m an extrovert.
And for some reason, I’ve got a craving for a really good pastry.
Let’s do a little experiment.
Quickly now! When was the last time you had a really good pastry?
Did you have to think about that? If so, where did you look? Up? Down?
Wait. You didn’t close your eyes, did you? Because now that I think about it, I don’t recall what it means if you close your eyes while thinking.
According to whatever it was I was reading at the time – and with my library, it could be anything from Home Dentistry Saves Money! to 101 Things To Do With Questionable Mushrooms – extroverts look up while seeking answers while introverts look down.
I suspect we all have our methods, our peccadilloes regarding concentration. I have a nephew, for example, who, even as a baby, rubbed his thumb against his first two fingers while searching for an answer.
“Would you like some milk, Liam?”
“Hmm.” Rub rub rub. “Yeh. Yike mewk.”
Anyway, this all came back to mind the other day in yoga. We were working our way into a balancing pose (“place both hands on the floor, rest your ribs on your elbows, and shoot your legs out behind you, allowing them to float up and hover six inches above the floor”) and invited to concentrate on our “drishdi”, a point of intense focus.
And that’s when I noticed that I have a drishdi and that it has been the same all my life: slightly up and to the left. In my world, the answers are just over that hill, just over there to the left.
The answers are just over there.
Turns out I’m an extrovert.
And for some reason, I’ve got a craving for a really good pastry.
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23 comments:
I always heard looking up was thinking, looking down was making something up.
Most of my answers I look up Google.
I'm an introvert regardless of which way I look.
I have several interpretations of that particular pose. One looks a lot like child's pose, the other looks like me leaving for a drink of water/bathroom break.
I'm packing and preparing to move and really appreciated the belly laugh that erupted just in reading this heading! Then continued through the rest of the post. I've exercised core muscles without being a yoga pretzel! Thanks Pearl!
The info about eye direction reminds me of NLP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming
As S.S. said, no matter which way I look, I'm an introvert. I also have a "lazy eye" which looks in all kinds of directions!
They got my grandma?
Mmmm, pastry. Dang it, Pearl, stop that!
Is that yoga pose even possible?
I'm thinking that those two thoughts are somehow related. Sigh.
Haven't had really good pastry since...casts eyes downward...gosh, I can't remember when but it's been a long time.
Hari OM
...so the looking inwards pose not working for ya? The answers always come from inside Pearl, no matter where you look or in which book, cuz it requires the use of thought. Even the pastry only matters once it becomes 'inner'.
What? Well you started it... YAM xx &*>
I spend most of my life craving pastry -
oh and what does it mean if people can hear you thinking?
My whatever-you-call-it is up and to the left just the same as yours. I'll see you over that hill, one day, mebbe, then
A closed eye introvert here. While looking down. Belt and braces?
I'm both, but at different times depending on where I'm looking.
I had to think about what I do when I think...and it turns out I look up.
I'm a little bit of both...I think my eyes went googly.
Im going to look for my drishdi! that is, after I find poise, contentment, and inner peace. But I know it's in there somewhere.
But...but...I'm a confirmed, life long introvert, but I look up. I'm bucking a trend. Throwing a monkey at the wrench. Gumming up the works. Groovy!
Sorry I closed my eyes.
You and I gaze in the same direction when pondering. Now that piece of three day old cake has my name on it. Later~
By God, my 2nd toe is bigger, and I'd like me a good pastry and I am not going to do your yoga thing.
I close my eyes when I am thinking of something or I will look up and close my eyes what does that mean I don't know thinking about it gives me a headache
I just stared unblinkingly straight ahead because I didn't have to think about the pastry question. There's an excellent bakery about 2 minutes walk from my house, and the only thing that has prevented me from gaining 40lbs is that 2 minutes feels too far.
I always look up. When I look down it feel constricting (in a mental sense). Darn Greeks! I was wondering where granny went.
I think I look straight ahead and purse my lips or sometimes frown when I'm thinking. I'm not sure what that says about me, and frankly, I am afraid to ask. I'll have one of those pastries, though, please. :D
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