If the center is defined (colored in)
Steady pressure and an impulse to act on adrenaline; its own pulsation.
A defined center is your constant. It works the same way in any company, and it’s how you influence others, even in silence.
If the center is open (white)
Hurries to get rid of the pressure. The Not-Self rushes to finish things to relieve stress.
An open center isn’t a flaw. It’s the place where you feel others keenly and, over time, gain wisdom: so many other people’s states pass through you that you learn to tell them apart. The only important thing is not to take what belongs to others for your own.
What this center is responsible for
The Root is the pressure to act, and stress. Not energy but pressure itself: a kick toward movement.
How definition shows in life
Your own pressure, your own rhythm: you wind up and discharge on your own schedule.
At six in the morning you’re already mixing mortar because the urge came over you, and by two in the afternoon everything is dropped, you’re watching football, and your conscience is quiet. At work they hurry you, and you don’t speed up: there’s your own metronome inside, and it’s louder than anyone else’s. Closer to the deadline the pressure builds by itself, you close the task in one night, and then you lie around for a day with no strength and a sense of satisfaction. The people at home realized long ago that there’s no use asking you to hurry, but if they catch your wave, you’ll do twice what you promised and not notice.
What openness turns into
Other people’s hurry becomes yours. Hence the eternal “I need to get this over with fast” to be free of the pressure — and bustle instead of work.
A colleague drops “it’s on fire” into the chat — and lunch is left half-eaten, though the deadline is on Thursday. In line, the person behind you sighs, and you start fussily shoving bags, dropping coins on the floor. At eleven at night you answer an email that would have calmly waited until morning, just to shake off that hum. And on Sunday, when it’s quiet at home and nobody breathes down your neck, you do without hurry what has been put off for a month. The difference was in the room, not in you.
The wisdom of the open center
Notice that what is hurrying you is not the task but someone else’s pressure. Things almost always can wait longer than they seem to.
The Gates of this center
Each Gate is a specific theme through which the center shows itself.
How the center connects to the rest of the chart
The set of defined centers makes up your Type and inner Authority — that is, it’s the centers that determine what you make decisions with. A center “switches on” when a whole channel forms between its Gates and the Gates of a neighboring center.