The Enneagram
The Enneagram offers nine different ways to understanding ourselves and others.
It is an ancient and amazing tool for personal development and spiritual growth that maps nine different personality types which are basically our ego and how we cope with the world.
Each of the nine Enneagram types has a different pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting that arises from a deeper inner motivation or way of seeing the world.
Every person is a unique representation of their type based on their own identity, culture, and experiences, yet the motivations and patterns of the nine types remain consistent.
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Learning about these patterns gives us a greater understanding of ourselves and others. By observing where you put your attention and energy, you can build awareness of your automatic patterns and explore a path to personal growth and development.
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Working with the Enneagram involves a careful and conscious effort at observing one’s thoughts, feelings and actions and by observing where you put your attention and energy, you can gain deeper insights into your automatic, habitual modes of thinking, feeling and acting.
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Take a look at some brief descriptions of the nine types below
Type 1
Believe they must be good and right to be worthy. Consequently, they are conscientious, responsible, improvement-oriented and self-controlled, but also can be critical, resentful and self-judging.
Type 3
Believe they must accomplish and succeed to be loved. Consequently, they are industrious, fast-paced, efficient and goal-oriented; they also can be inattentive to feelings, impatient and image-driven.
Type 5
Believe they must protect themselves from a world that demands too much and gives too little. Consequently, they seek self-sufficiency and are non-demanding, analytic, thoughtful and unobtrusive; they also can be withholding, detached and overly private.
Type 7
Believe they must stay upbeat and keep your possibilities open to assure a good life. Consequently, they seek pleasurable options and are optimistic and adventurous; they also avoid pain and can be uncommitted.
Type 9
Believe that to be loved and valued, they must blend in and go with the flow. Consequently, they seek harmony and are inclusive, amiable, easy-going, comfortable and steady; they also can be self-forgetting, conflict-avoidant and stubborn.
Type 2
Believe they must give fully to others to be loved. Consequently, they are caring, helpful, supportive and relationship-oriented; they also can be prideful, intrusive and demanding.
Type 4
Believe they can regain the lost ideal love or perfect state by finding the love or situation that is unique, special and fulfilling. Consequently, they are idealistic, deeply feeling, empathetic and authentic; they also can be dramatic, moody and sometimes self-absorbed.
Type 6
Believe they must gain certainty and security in a hazardous world that you just can’t trust. Consequently, they are intuitive, inquisitive, trustworthy, good friends and problem-solvers, but also can be doubtful, accusatory and fearful.
Type 8
Believe they must be strong and powerful to assure protection and regard in a tough world. Consequently, they seek justice and are direct, strong and action-oriented; they also can be overly impactful, excessive and impulsive and self-serving.
