Lifestyle

Mindful Personality Quiz

There are so many ways to celebrate the mind-body connection and incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine.

From yoga to meditation apps to silent retreats deep in the woods, everyone can get in on the fun. But how do you find the kind of mindfulness practice that works for you?? All the options can be overwhelming, and it’s a time-consuming task trying to do the research to figure out which approach is perfect for your individual needs.

That’s why we’ve done the research for you in developing our very own Mindfulness Quiz, a brief 5 question survey that takes into account your personality and preferences to match you to a mindfulness practice that best suits your unique situation.

Personality actually plays a huge role in how we perceive pain. For example, studies have shown that some introverts tend to rank headache pain as more severe than their more extroverted counterparts. This is not to say that if you enjoy staying in on a Saturday night instead of going out to party, you’re destined for a huge migraine. It only means that you will likely find that different strategies help you cope with pain.

Not sure whether you're an introvert or an extrovert?

Popular personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Enneagram give us insight into our innermost selves and present an opportunity for deep reflection. With our Mindfulness Quiz, we aim to do the same, with the added benefit of finding you ways to better manage your pain through meditative practice. We’ve based our questions on the OCEAN framework, one of the oldest and most studied assessments of personality.

The OCEAN acronym stands for Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, where people are thought to score high or low on each of these five factors. Of course, having a higher or lower score in one category doesn't make you a better or worse person. These are simply the things that set you apart, the things that make you, well, YOU. The scenarios we’ve presented below are designed to celebrate all the different kinds of personalities while suggesting mindfulness techniques that mesh with you as an individual.

Take the quiz below and let us know what you think!! ↴

Take the Mindfulness Quiz

It’s the holiday season again and it’s your turn to host! You can either use your great-grandma’s stuffing recipe or follow a YouTube tutorial that includes mangos as a secret ingredient. What do you do?

A. Grandma knows best!
B. It’s mango time!

For A: You are practical at heart ♥️ Tradition and routine mean a lot to you, so honoring your grandmother’s legacy by using her recipe is a no-brainer. While mango stewing sounds…interesting, you’d rather stick to tried-and-true ingredients.

For you, deep breathing exercises that you can easily incorporate into your daily life are an easy way to introduce mindfulness into your routine. Aside from calming the mind, deep breathing also has lots of very practical benefits for the body including strengthening the diaphragm, improving cardiac health, and increasing lung capacity.

For B: You are adventurous at heart ♥️ You love to try new things and re-invent old ways of doing things. Plus, mango stuffing could be the best thing to ever happen to the holidays!! Wouldn’t it be a shame not to try it?

Caprine vinyasa, also known as goat yoga, is definitely a unique adventure. Imagine baby goats running around a room, climbing on your back, and trying to snuggle on your lap. It might sound, at first, like the opposite of relaxation, but interacting with animals can release feel-good chemicals from the brain that reduce stress and anxiety. Plus, hanging with the goats will give you lots of fun stories to tell!

Your BFF calls to tell you they’ve scored two free first-class tickets to the Bahamas! How do you respond?

A. “YES!!! Let’s go! I have a work project, but I can be packed and ready for the airport in 2 hours”

B. “WHAT?! How’d you get free tickets? I can’t believe I’m saying this but I have to stay to finish a project at work”

For A: You are a free spirit, able to make split-second decisions to protect your own peace and happiness. Sometimes, this can land you in hot water: your colleagues might not be super happy about you skipping out on work to frolic in the Caribbean. But, your spontaneity prevents you from missing out on some of life’s greatest pleasures!

For you, art therapy is a great way to both explore your spontaneity and creativity and relax your body and mind. Making art is a great way to tap into a more mindful state and reap the benefits of self-expression, focus, and pain-reduction. Plus, you’ll get to take home some dope paintings! 

For B: Your discipline is truly admirable (Passing up a free vacation to stay at work?! Where the promotion at??😂). You are hardworking, ambitious, and dependable, keeping your eyes on the prize no matter what. Sometimes, this causes you to miss out on some fun experiences (Caribbean vacation, hello?!), but you’re someone that we can all count on to get the job done.

Tai chi, an ancient Chinese fighting style turned meditative practice, may appeal to the part of you that loves structure; in Tai Chi, you take your body through a series of defined movements, accompanied by deep breathing and stretching. You’ll also get to enjoy benefits like increased muscle tone, improved mood, and better stamina.  

You’ve spent the day at a family member’s wedding, catching up with relatives and meeting new people. When you get home you feel…

A. Drained. It was so great seeing everyone again and getting to know some of the plus-ones, but now you need to be alone to recharge.

B. Energized. It was so great seeing everyone again and getting to know some of the plus-ones. You’re in your element socializing and making new connections.

For A: Hello, introvert! While you have such a good time hanging out with family and friends, you need downtime by yourself to recharge and reset.

If you prefer to practice mindfulness alone in the comfort of your own home, there are a plethora of meditation apps to choose from (here’s a list of some free options)! From your phone, you can access the soothing sounds of rain and listen to guided relaxation sessions and body scans. 

For B: Hello, extrovert! You love being with people and feel like your best self when you’re out and about.

If you enjoy hanging out with other people while you get your mindfulness on, embodied meditation a.k.a meditative dance might be for you. Typically, dance meditation is offered as a group class (but private options are available too!) where you get to move your body intentionally to music and positive affirmations while surrounded by people. It’s higher energy and more collective than many other schools of mediation, appealing to your inner social butterfly!

Imagine you’re in class working on a group project with some other students. One of your group members turns to you and asks whether you would be willing to help them out with their section of the project because they have another commitment later that night. What do you do?

A. Agree to help them out even if it means you’ll have to sacrifice a bit of sleep 

B. Decline — after all, you have commitments too and it’s not fair for you to have to do someone else’s work for them!

For A: You go out of your way to help others, even if it means that you sometimes get the short end of the stick. You enjoy making people smile 😀 If your friends were to describe you in three words, they would say that you are kind, empathetic, and selfless. 

Compassion-focused exercises incorporate your caring, sweet nature and allow you to use those traits to ground yourself. Imagine a time when you experienced an outpouring of love and care for a particular person. Remember how it felt to embrace that person or to help them in their time of need. Focus on the warmth spreading through your body and the memory of making a loved one smile. Let those feelings wash over you, sweeping away stress and worry and reminding you of the goodness you hold within.

For B: You know how to stand your ground, even when it means someone else doesn’t get their way. You know what’s fair and you’re not afraid to be blunt when the situation calls for it 💯If your friends were to describe you in three words, they would say that you are bold, assertive, and independent. 

Biofeedback is a technique designed to give you more control over your own body just by using your mind. The process involves having an experienced provider attach a series of sensors to different parts of your body in order to measure heart rate, temperature, muscle contractions, sweat, and other vital signs and bodily functions. These sensors will give you data about the status of your body; for example, which muscles are tense or how your blood pressure varies in response to certain stimuli. This, in turn, gives you feedback that you can use to intentionally relax your muscles and otherwise master how your body reacts to stress and pain. 

You make a quick stop at the grocery store after work to pick up a few essentials. You get to the register… and realize you don’t have your wallet. How do you react?

A. “I can’t believe I lost my wallet!! How am I going to pay for all of this? Ugh, how annoying to only find out now that the cashier is already scanning my stuff!”

B. “I’m pretty sure I had my wallet when I left work, so it must be in the car. I’ll just tell the cashier to set my stuff aside while I go look. It’s no big deal!”

For A: You love to dot your i’s and cross your t’s — losing your wallet totally throws off your game. You can be awkward, shy, and self-deprecating which makes you endearing and relatable to a lot of people. 

Tantrum Yoga, a variation of yoga that involves letting out bottled-up feelings in the form of a tantrum, can help you release some of that anxious energy. Get ready to scream, roll around, and return to your toddler self!!

For B: You are as cool as a cucumber! Very little phases you — your confidence is plain to see. While losing your wallet is definitely not ideal, you’re not going to let it ruin your day.

You are the epitome of chill, so it’s only right that you get the chance to work up a sweat doing hot yoga. Hot yoga is an intense and high-energy form of yoga practiced in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a great way to exercise your body and your mind — holding some of those poses will definitely test both your determination and flexibility. Just don’t forget to take some water with you!

Thanks for taking our quiz!

We hope that you found some worthwhile suggestions for starting or continuing your mindfulness journey. May you find calm, joy, and peace doing whatever method you choose. And if you see us at your yoga class, please come say hi!!

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