Enneagram
“The highest form of intelligence is the ability to observe without evaluating.”
Firstly, working with the enneagram allows you to see your personality, as well as its fixations and defense mechanisms in action. When you are able to do this without judging yourself, it creates opportunities for you to respond to people or situations as opposed to reacting to them. With a deeper understanding and knowing about what this is protecting you from (usually its fear or pain), you’ll begin to cultivate self-compassion and a better relationship with yourself.
Secondly, you will then develop more empathy towards others, leading to better relationships, communication and your ability to resolve conflict. If you occupy a leadership position in your team, your business or your community, then cultivating these healthy relationships is key. Not only will this improve your team’s chances of success, but you’ll have a more meaningful and epic time on the way towards that success.
And finally, an ideal partner to walk this journey with you is a coach with deep knowledge of the enneagram. This allows you to explore yourself within the context of the system in a non-judgmental way, to be truly heard and to receive direct feedback when needed. Together we will chart a path from where you are now to where you want to be, and we will design actions for your enneagram type to get you there.
What is the Enneagram?
The enneagram consists of 3 centers of intelligence: head, heart & hands (body). The head center lives in the mind, and relies on thinking and imagination to express core feelings of fear and anxiety. The heart is our emotional center, where feelings are felt – our own emotions and empathy towards others, and where core feelings of sadness and grief are expressed. And the hands center lives in the body, and uses gut instincts and somatics to express the core feeling of anger.
Each of these core feelings (fear, sadness and anger) can be expressed in one of 3 ways: externally, internally, or in a conflicted/confused/stifled way. The resultant 9 combinations represent the 9 archetypes of the enneagram. Each of us contains all 9 archetypes, however we all overuse one of the centers of expression, and one mode of expressing that center. This is what the Enneagram assessment tool shows you. This overuse is a product of our upbringing and survival instincts, and leads to defense mechanisms, fixations, and blind spots. This drives the personality to form in one of 9 possible ways. Knowing this crucial to understand why you do certain things the way you do.
“The map is not the territory”
The enneagram shows us the map of these 9 personalities and their inter-relatedness, and therefore how to find our true selves by observing our personalities in action. The hard work to reclaim your true self is up to you, and it is a lifelong commitment. The direct experience of this integration work is the territory, and the enneagram doesn’t do this for you.
“Spiritual work without psychological work is dangerous. Psychological work without spiritual work is incomplete”
Working with the enneagram is not only intellectual, left-brain, and psychological. It is partly that, yet it has a spiritual element to it as well, where the ultimate pursuit is to live life as our true selves and achieve our full potential. This is where coaching fits in perfectly!