Water, so open and changeable, is the hardest element to write about in the personality. Mainly because it manifests in so many different ways. We’re all influenced by our environment, the place we live (places have overall temperaments too!), our families, our upbringing, but phlegmatics appear so different based on these variables that it can be difficult to tell sometimes, until you look deeper at their motivations.

Did you know that all the trigonometry skills in the world cannot explain rogue waves because water it still too unpredictable? I know this is frustrating to the science nerds, but as a human who loves a lingering mystery, this makes me happy. Looking out at the sea and its un-measured depths gives me a sublime sort of pleasure: there are places that we still have not tamed. Emotions, as with waves, cannot be predicted or controlled. They move of their own volition and they, too are untamed. I think it’s one of the reasons that the rational sect gets so irritated with emotional types— there’s no structure to it, no reason, it doesn’t make sense. If you’re the type of person who can push emotions aside to get the job done, that’s fantastic, but to the phlegmatic that simply isn’t a possibility: emotion is the filter through which they see the world, and in order to get the job done, the emotions must return to their neutral baseline first.

Phlegmatics navigate the world through their feelings. Where a melancholic will think something through and make sure it makes logical sense, a phlegmatic won’t act until it feels right. This can be confusing to those who operate based on logic, but understand that this is simply, like reason, another way to see the world; another language. It is as alien for a phlegmatic to forge ahead when something doesn’t feel right, as it is for a melancholic for whom there is no rational reason to do something. This language of feelings is one that phlegmatics use to navigate the world around them: cooking by feeling, playing music by feeling, taking driving routes by feeling. It’s often a finely tuned art, a response to stressors in the environment that others aren’t aware of. I know a phlegmatic cook who never sets a timer for her steak but always knows when its done. Always. You could study it, see if maybe she’s sensitive to a different sound, or a change in smell, or just accept that when she feels the steak is done it is and leave it at that. A phlegmatic painter will paint until the painting feels right. I, in formulating, do so feeling as though my insides are on the outside, and know that a formula is done when it clicks into place, and settles into a calm. How can this be explained rationally? It can’t, of course, and this is one of the reasons that phlegmatics often feel so incredibly misunderstood in our rational society.

http://thornandwonder.com/blog/2016/03/phlegmatic