Upon entering the Festival grounds, one of the first sights to greet a visitor is a large sign which says Welcome Home. After driving up to the ticket booth to exchange a ticket for a wrist band and program, one's ears also receive the greeting "Welcome Home" from Festival volunteers.
What is home? The word may conjure up pictures in our minds of a special town like Kerrville or a locale like the Kerrville Folk Festival grounds at Quiet Valley Ranch. It may take us back to memories of a specific house or other building. No matter what home is to us, I believe the words Welcome Home are among the most soothing, encouraging, joy - producing words we ever hear. Whether we've been traveling or are just returning home after a long day at work, being welcomed when we arrive can produce positive emotions such as feelings of safety, security, comfort, relief, and a sense of being loved and accepted.
The words Welcome Home, I believe, also describe the experience of many people who take the Myers - Briggs Type Indicator(R) assessment for the first time and learn about their own personality preferences. Many people experiencing the MBTI(R) tool for the first time and verifying their type preferences have never heard that it is OK for them to be who they are. Instead, society, family, coworkers, peers and others have told them that they need to be someone else. Society expects us to behave as if we have personality preferences for ESTJ, so anyone who has a preference for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling or Perceiving may have received the message, perhaps for many years, that they are not OK. People of any type preference, including ESTJ, may have received this message if they are significantly different from their family or peers.
Most find it a relief and comfort to learn what their type preferences are and that these preferences, along with all the other four - letter type codes, are normal, healthy, and help us bring our own special magic to the world. Those who've wondered why they supposedly don't fit in will learn how they can energize themselves and what their own unique contributions to the world can be. This can be especially valuable for those who for whatever reason have been living as if they are the opposite of their true preference for Introversion or Extraversion. Living in this way would cause a state of emotional exhaustion which anyone should be glad to end! Learning one's true preferences and beginning to live a life that honors and is in harmony with them rather than the expectations of others, is like returning to the comforts of home after a long, hard journey. Although I've used Introversion and Extraversion, or I and E (the first letter in a type code) as an example, the same is true of the rest of the letters in a type code.
Our first exposure to knowledge of our type preferences also, in my opinion, gives us a sense of safety and security. Learning many years ago which ways of gathering information, making decisions and relating to the outer world (the remaining three letters in a type code) I would be most comfortable and successful with has helped me feel safe and secure.
For example, only a small minority, myself included, has a preference for Intuition. But knowing that Intuition is my most trusted and reliable method of gathering information has freed me to relax and rely on it. I don't worry about the fact that the majority of the population, being Sensing types, requires facts rather than hunches before making decisions. Knowing that Intuition is my preference helps me feel safe and secure in using it, instead of fearful that I should be using my Sensing preference like most of the people around me.
When we think of being welcomed home, happy emotions such as feeling loved and accepted may also come to mind. In the same way, knowing our own and others' personality preferences, and that all are healthy and normal, should help us love and accept ourselves and others. We may also feel joy that the world is full of such a diversity of personalities and that we've finally had a chance to learn about and accept them.
An illustration often used by type practitioners compares the 16 MBTI type codes to a house with 16 rooms. The 16 type codes are made up of the four preference pairs: Introversion and Extraversion; Sensing and Intuition; Thinking and Feeling; and Judging and Perceiving. Everyone uses all of these preferences at different times, but there is one member of each preference pair, and thus one four - letter type code, that we prefer. We will be at our best and happiest, and most likely to meet our potential, when using these preferences. In the same way, a homeowner moves about freely among his 16 rooms, but has one room which is his favorite. He will spend most of his time and feel most comfortable and at his best there. His sense of belonging and being welcome will be strongest there.
Just as there is a sign at the Kerrville Folk Festival welcoming Festival - goers home, there is a sign inside each of us which welcomes us home when we are using our favorite preferences. It tells us that we are in the place where we belong and where we can be most comfortable, energized and productive. We may feel this welcome most powerfully when we learn our type preferences for the first time, discover what we've been missing and have that "Aha!" moment. But we feel that sense of welcome whenever we can stop using those preferences which the world or circumstances require, and slip into that comfortable garment of the preferences which are most natural to us. Ah!!
What about you? Have you learned what your type preferences are? Discovered what you've been missing? Had that "Aha!" moment?
You have? Wow, that's fantastic!
Welcome Home!!!