Synful and Contrabased
The Syn & Contra Cycles by Chanti & Sofie
A largely misunderstood concept in the Enneagram, due to its intuitive nature, are the two instinctual flows: Syn & Contra.
Sarah compared synflows to hobbits and contras to elves, and the example has always stuck with me.
Syns are personal, contras are conceptual.
Syns complete the arc, contras disrupt or renew it.
Meme by Sarah
“Synflows on discord:
- pile reacts upon reacts on posts
- react to shit they catch up on later just to make known they were there
- sincerely (over-)explain themselves
- bring conversations back to a personal frame, make it all about themselves and their little worlds
- have a cheesy side (dad jokes & alliterations)
- simps for their connections
- vibe with the group speak, lore and emojis faster and intuitively
- pull you closer, closer, closer and don’t know how to end conversations once hooked (I hate almost everyone first but when I’m hooked, it’s meth, contras often change topics abruptly when juicy or mysteriously disappear)
- you & me feel”
“I mean fuck I’ll be the first contra person here to say I relate more to ‘moving towards people.’
Though it wasn’t always that way, tbf I had to have a whole arc where I tried to be more of a collectivist.
I guess some observations/maybe insights, it seems like synflow people irl in general have more of an adverse reaction to the various ways contra types can be dehumanizing, like even something like typology in general a lot of synflow people (generalizing obviously) will have a sort of “cringe” reaction or see it as erasing people’s specificness/humanity.
I feel like contra types can sort of endlessly circle jerk around their meta-ironic bits and there’s very little sense of getting worn out from that whereas synflow types will also have kind of a cringe response to that sort of thing.
Synflow stories/media can sometimes just leave more of a personal impact than contra media even if it doesn’t necessarily have as much to say about something broader because the personal arc/transformational aspect can be a lot stronger and hook you in more.
Synflow people will say/comment things a lot and I’ll just have no idea how to keep the convo going, get into a ‘flow.’”
“It’s interesting, because sometimes I feel like I keep it more concrete or personal as it’s own form of energetic protection. Like, so/sp’s can just go off forever and ever and are never satisfied to just let go of the convo when I get tired of it.
Sometimes I just want to share my own perspective, hear your personal thoughts, and then go to the next thing. Not excavate the entire contextual meaning behind a topic.”
“I definately see synflows who are just naturally in tune with human nature...
I, for instance, feel like I have to get into a certain type of mode when I’m around people. I’m not just someone who is ever in tune with the flow of life/people.”
“Synflow I feel like tends to see forces in the world as interacting particles and contra as ‘me and the rest of the world as a bloc,’ process-based vs. results-based, ‘I need to make this happen’ going against the forces vs. accepting that certain process are impossible and ‘being the force’ which brings about outcomes.
Which is why contra can feel less like a person and more like a concept.
Synflow feels more individuated to me, contra more transpersonal.”
“Here’s another Law of Three overlap:
Heart Center feels energetically synflow, reaching, personal, wants to connect in a specific way with secret language between two parties, sincerity, wearing their personal heart [value] on their sleeves.
Head Center feels energetically contra, questioning, reactivity present to uncover hidden truths, systemising, connecting data into a bigger scope.
Gut Center is the pause between flows, the invisible force needed to rewind the clock - they’re autonomy types, they control time, they have the slowest reaction (literally stop the flow, you must not rush) and see themselves as separate from the flows.”
“I have so much to tell you that I am afraid I shall tell you nothing.”
“I have similar conversations with my contra friends as I have with my syn friends. Maybe the approach is different. With my sp/so friends we kind of start with the personal and spread out to broader concepts. With my contra friends we tend to start with concepts and narrow down to the personal.”
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Synflows are simps, contras are trolls
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Synflows are simps, contras are trolls 〰️
Meme by Bad Hexy
