Daily Living

HealthType Harmony: The Balance of Connectors & Sensors

Those "opposite" to us can bring us our greatest balance, and help us learn our biggest lessons

Natalie Howard Natalie Howard
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Last year I went through a significant personal realignment. A rebalancing of myself after becoming a mother. I wrote an article sharing my gratitude and reflections on my incredible mentors who supported me through. I had coaching friends of every HealthType, each balancing me out with their specific skill set and genius.  

It’s a lived example of the importance of the village, why we are all designed with unique gifts – we make the whole by coming together. The wholeness we find through connection is a reflection of the wholeness that resides within us. It is the truth that we are one, but we are many. 

We find truths through connection. Connecting ideas, experiences, each other.

Connection. This is one of my biggest learnings. Discovering even more deploy the importance of connection, on all levels: mind and body, within self, with others.

Why is connection a major lesson for me to learn? Because I’m a Sensor. 

It is usually the case that we have the biggest lessons to learn from what comes naturally for the Health Type on the opposite side of the circle to us. What we struggle with is effortless for the other. And what the other needs help with, we can offer so easily that it ignites and inspires us. This is why when we are living our unique design, which is so clearly stepped out for us in our personalised profile, we find so much fulfilment from just doing what we are good at, what we enjoy. It’s exactly what we need for our own health & happiness, and it’s exactly what someone else needs to help balance out and enhance their health and happiness.

This is what has inspired my latest series exploring how the Health Types balance each other out.  I discuss direct opposites, but the general principles apply for the types sitting on opposing sides. So what the Connector brings out for the Sensor, they also bring for the Crusader & Diplomat. And what the Sensor offers the Connector, they can also bring for the Activator & Guardian.

The Sensor & Connector Balance

  • The Connector mind wants to connect everyone and everything together + the Sensor mind can see and manage all the pieces to do that
  • The Sensor mind wants the security that comes from everything being in order + the Connector mind creates that by binding all the pieces together

The Connector is the glue of society. They literally bring everyone together, irresistibly. The connector embodies acceptance. Of course we all belong together. Of course nobody is better or worse than anyone else. Of course life is supposed to be fun. It’s the perfect balance for a Sensor’s analysis and prediction. Stop being in your own mind. Be out here with everyone else. Come down from the sky and play. The Connector mind says, “I’ve got this, everything’s fine, look, it’s fun!” when the Sensor mind is still trying to complete an almighty risk assessment before joining in. The Connector actually makes the Sensor feel safe – which is what the Sensor wants. To feel safe to play.

Sensors want cohesion, order. Our minds strive to create this order internally – through processes of analysis, planning and constant reflection and refinement. But the Connector mind knows a short cut. Just go straight to connecting. Bring everyone together. Boost everyone to feel happy, positive and united. There’s the order & harmony. Go straight to the source, the person, the feelings, the moment. The heart. Nothing settles down a Sensor mind like order and harmony. And the Connectors create that, in a beautiful, lateral, intuitive way. And then, this frees up the Sensor mind to carry on doing what it loves to do. Because it is feeling safe. There is no conflict, no chaos. There is connection.  

In counterbalance, the Sensor can bring a logical order when a Connector needs to make sense of things. “Why didn’t something work out? Why did that reaction happen? How can I achieve what I want to – I can see it, I want it, but I can’t seem to figure out the steps?” The Sensor can cooly assist the Connector to know that what happens is never their failing, they haven’t done anything “wrong” – it’s just a matter of taking some different steps next time. The Sensor can see the steps very clearly, a long way into the future, giving the Connector the secure trust in knowing they don’t have to have it all figured out, they can relax and keep following their heart, and they’ve got someone watching the path from up above. The bird scanning the skies for them.

Often a Connector just wants that framework to exist, the security in knowing that things are set up but they don’t need to be on top of it all – and it all completely affirms what they already knew intuitively. Their mind (from society) was just telling them “We need a plan here! Things aren’t working! What’s going on?” when actually their heart really knows it’s fine, and it always does work out, it just kind of beautifully unfolds as it happens. 

Having the counterbalance from someone like a Sensor alleviates the anxiety and worry. It helps the Connector mind relax. Another mind has got the detailed, contingent and long term stuff under control. They can keep being and flowing, and continually bringing new inspired ideas and connections forward, no matter how fast and wild they are, and the analytical mind will plan the perfect time and place to slot those into place. Nothing and nobody gets missed or left out. Which is precisely the most important thing for a Connector. Nobody and nothing is left out – everything gets connected.

It’s a beautiful union of a future focused, detached and logical mind (the Sensor) and a present focused, empathic and lateral mind (the Connector.) Either can do both, but it’s what comes naturally to each that enhances the other. And when each is doing what comes so naturally to them, each is in flow. Each loves doing it. Each loves sharing it. And each loves receiving what the other can offer. 

To work 1:1 with Nat, Personalised Communication, Behaviour & Relationships coach, click here.

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