E-TYPES: THE FUN-LOVERS
Fun-lovers would not know what stress was if they tripped over it, and look in amazement when it’s explained to them that they are doing too much. Fun-lovers embrace life with a great enthusiasm and are often impetuous. Being optimists they frequently bite off more than they can chew, long before they realise it. They burn out doing all those things they enjoy. Their personalities lack the intensity of the achievers and the urgency of the doers, though some doers exhibit some of the fun-lover traits.
Fun-lovers are into everything and often have lots of friends and a busy social life. They are not irresponsible. Most of them pursue interesting careers or at least hold down steady jobs. (In this context motherhood and domesticity are considered to be careers.) An over-abundance of enthusiasm is what drives them and they burn out trying to pursue all their interests and keep in touch with all their friends. Workaholic fun-lovers do exist. They differ from achiever and doer workaholics in that work to them is fun and they are just not aware of the hours they are putting in. Because of their lack of intensity they usually last longer than others before the effects of over-work set in.
Fun-lovers, like all hard-chargers, have to learn to pace themselves. They have to learn to get the balance right. Fun-lovers are like kids in a candy shop. Life to them is sweet, colourful and has so many different flavours they just can’t wait to taste.
Most hard-chargers find it difficult to accept that their attitude and lifestyle is the root cause of their symptoms, as they invariably know someone with a similar lifestyle who is perfectly well. This may well be true and for a number of reasons:
• The other person doesn’t have allergies or a Candida yeast infection. The hard-chargers that seek me out have low-grade allergies which, prior to them becoming stressed, have never given them any symptoms. Since their cumulative stresses have built up over a period of time, their resistance has waned and the allergy symptoms have manifested.
• The other person hasn’t been stressed for as long. The human body has remarkable powers of adaptation and can put up with stress for a long time before it’s adaptive mechanisms break down. In a way this is not a good thing as it lulls us into a false sense of security. Because we are able to lead a stressful lifestyle for so long without any ill effects we naturally look for another cause when the symptoms of disease begin to manifest. If we are lucky enough to be born well nourished, with a genetically strong constitution, have no low-grade allergies or Candida yeast infections and have had no pregnancies, terminations, or surgery, we can cope with high levels of stress and remain symptom free for a long time. However, symptoms in time do come and their cause is frequently misdiagnosed. Because we are so much in the habit of living a stressful lifestyle, we are actually comfortable with it and feel uncomfortable at the thought of making changes to it. Such is the power of habit. Because it takes time to change habits we are patient and accept that it will take time for us to change. The best program to be on while reorganising our lifestyle is the Metabolism-Balancing Program. The deep breathing and mental relaxation exercises given in this chapter also help this process of change significantly.
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