Tigger and Eeyore

I have always been fascinated by the opposite personality extremes of Tigger and Eeyore. I am sure my fascination centers around the fact that I often feel both extremes exist within me…and they are NOT friendly to one another. It is sometimes with quiet apprehension that I wake up and wonder who will “show up to the party” today.

Tigger will burst on the scene and barge right into the middle of whatever is going on, invited or not. He loves a party and does not see beyond his own desires so can often be wildly inappropriate. He loves drama, talks too much, desires attention, and his sense of fun overrides any rules or responsibilities. While Eeyore on the other hand, prefers solitude and will retreat for long periods of time with no notice, leaving friends and family to wonder what happened. He is introspective but with a negative bent and can spend hours dwelling on past mistakes and imagined offenses.

I have a tendency to look down on both of them for embarrassing me. I can be slow to open up to new relationships for fear that I will eventually let people down as Tigger is famous for rashly signing up for things that Eeyore cannot follow through with. All too often Tigger, with his excessive chatter, outrageous acts, and non-discriminate spending leaves poor Eeyore stuck with “the check”.

Recently however, a friend encouraged me to learn to embrace all of my parts. In an effort to see things from a more positive perspective, I did some research on the personality traits of both Tigger and Eeyore and was surprised at what I learned. As I read through the list, I was able to acknowledge that I did in fact possess some of the more admirable attributes, they had just gotten lost beneath the glaring visibility of the not so admirable ones.

Tigger has been compared to Van Gogh with his free form creativity and love of color. He is comfortable with emotion and expression, possesses contagious enthusiasm, sees the bright side of situations, and doesn’t dwell on “what if’s”. He has great intuition, adapts to change constantly, laughs easily, let’s go of hurts quickly and loves others without hesitation. Tigger is full of absolute confidence that often inspires those around him. Eeyore has been compared to Michelangelo who was dedicated to extensive detailed study in order to achieve a perfect work of art. He is a contemplative thinker who weighs all options, can recognize potential obstacles and create contingency plans. He loves to provide structure and order to chaos and his analytical mind can bring life to a vision. Eeyore’s tendency to sit quietly in the background often brings profound observations of things many will miss.

Knowing these personality profiles gives me something to think about. Are some of these things hidden within me? And if so, how do I begin to recognize them and bring them forward....to begin to accept myself in all seasons.

If you read the Winnie the Pooh stories, Tigger and Eeyore, (each on the completely opposite end of the personality spectrum), were actually great friends. I expect it is because they brought good balance to one another. I imagine their friendship provided variety in their life that made it much more interesting.

Living with these two reminds me of a quote that Joss Stone said, “Life is good. Or at least it’s always interesting.”