The Enneagram

What is the Enneagram?

The Enneagram is a psychological system, pronounced “ANY-a-gram.” Though ancient in origin, the Enneagram is rooted in modern day psychology, and provides a very specific “map” to recognize the strategies people have unconsciously used to survive. This tool provides a clear explanation of the ways these strategies are actually predictable and can potentially get acted out in both healthy as well as very unhealthy, self-sabotaging ways. All personality structures have the potential of serving one’s self and others positively, as well as negatively. When individuals are unconscious of underlying hurt and pain, they are frequently unaware of how they may be acting out, discharging their own negative beliefs and needs on themselves, others, and society as a whole. We all become fiercely addicted to these patterns because they are familiar.

THE 9 ESSENTIAL QUALITIES: WHAT'S RIGHT ABOUT YOU?

We help people to remember what is right about them. All human behavior is an attempt to feel loved. We believe that it is our birthright to have autonomy, to know our worth, and to feel safe and secure. When our basic human needs and rights have been unmet or worse, violated, there is an intelligence underlying our impulses and reactions. We bring understanding to the motivations which preceded behaviors — compassion for the why before the what, because we cannot change what we do not first understand.

"We are all in a prison of our own making in the ways we suffer our personality.

Our enormous potential is often eclipsed by life's hardships, which causes us to shift away from our essential selves, and into "survival mode." This vital intelligence is what keeps us alive in extreme circumstances; however, it can become a "prison" that blocks us from our essential selves. This unconscious, fixated, survival pattern causes us to suffer in a prison of our own making. The Enneagram helps us go inside ourselves to unpack the patterns, and understand what is driving the behaviors. It is a profound key to self-understanding, and personal freedom.

The Belly Center: Types 8, 9, 1

Underlying Aversive Emotion:
Anger/Rage
If you are a Belly Center type you tend to filter the world through an intelligence of kinesthetic, physical-spatial awareness, and gut instinct. You use personal position and power to make life be the way it should be. You devise strategies that assure your place in the world, ones that minimize discomfort and protect against violation. Of course, not only the Body Center types, but all types utilize a kinesthetic, sensory intelligence to be in touch with the energy needed for action, to discern how much power to use in situations, and to supply a sense of being in the world that is grounded, dignified, and autonomous.

Underlying Feelings: Agitation, Frustration, Irritability, Tension

Affective State: Dignified, Autonomous, Individuated

TYPE 8: EXPRESSES Anger
TYPE 9: DENIES Anger
TYPE 1: REPRESS/SUPPRESS Anger

Type 8: The Protector / Challenger

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Aliveness, Immediacy, Strength
Type 8's come to teach us how to experience the fullness of life in the moment. They show us how to live in the world with respect, mutual cooperation, and meet life and one another with magnanimity. They are natural leaders that inspire us to lead our own lives with vitality, autonomy, and dignity.

Prison of my own making: I must be strong and protect my vulnerability to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge and release my fear of intimacy. I can remember that when I am vulnerable I experience the tremendous power of what it means to really be strong.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: INTENSITY, EXUBERANCE
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: TRUTH, MAGNANIMITY
ATTENTION GOES TO: POWER, CONTROL
AVOIDANCE: WEAKNESS, SUSCEPTIBILITY

Type 9: Mediator / Peacemaker

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Wholeness, Unity, Being
Type 9's come to teach us how to be gentle and kind. They naturally accept people just as they are. They are peaceful souls who are patient and present to others.

Prison of my own making: I must acquiesce to others and stay peaceful to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge and release my idealization of the world and others. I can remember that my instincts and voice matter. Taking right-action is the most important way of showing that we all belong, including me.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: ACQUIESCENCE, ACCOMMODATION
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF SELF AND OTHER
ATTENTION GOES TO: VARIOUS CLAIMS FROM ENVIRONMENT
AVOIDANCE: CONFLICT, DISHARMONY

Type 1: Idealist / Reformer

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Goodness, Sacredness, Purity
Type 1's come to teach us about goodness. The Idealist sees how the world could be. They are naturally able to see the potential in anyone or anything and often have the steps and knowledge of the path to help us achieve it.

Prison of my own making: I must be perfect and not make mistakes to earn value and be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge and release my unrealistic expectations of myself. I can remember that I can accept things as they are and I can find perfection even in the imperfections.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: INTEGRITY, FRUSTRATION
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: PERFECTION, IDEALISM
ATTENTION GOES TO: CORRECTING, IMPROVING
AVOIDANCE: CONDEMNATION, EXPRESSED ANGER

The Heart Center: Types 2, 3, 4

Underlying Aversive Emotion:
Grief/Shame
If you are a Heart Center type you tend to perceive the world through an intelligence associated with feelings and relational responses. You are attuned to the moods and feeling states in others in order to maintain your feeling of connection with those around you. You depend more than other types on the approval and recognition of others, and that approval supports your self-esteem and your feeling of being loved. To assure that you get that approval and recognition, you create an image of yourself that will get others to accept you and see you as indispensable, successful, or special. Of course, not only the Heart Center types, but all types depend on relational acuity to develop the higher qualities of the Heart Center, such as empathy, understanding, compassion, and loving-kindness.

Underlying Feelings: Shame, Sadness,

Affective State: Connected, Loving, Accepting, Nurturing

TYPE 2: REPRESS/SUPPRESS Grief/Shame
TYPE 3: DENIES Grief/Shame
TYPE 4: EXPRESSES Grief/Shame

Type 2: Giver / Helper

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Love, Sweetness, Nurturing
Type 2's come to teach us about love. Type 2's have a sweetness about them and are thoughtful and kind in their giving. Natural at healing and nurturing others, they pay attention to the important things others may need. They care with a genuine tenderness.

Prison of my own making: I must be of service to others and put their needs first to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can recognize my ulterior motives and negative feelings toward others and release them. I can remember that I cannot love and nurture others unless and until I do this for myself.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: PRIDE, INDISPENSABILITY
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: ALTRUISM, SERVICE
ATTENTION GOES TO: OTHERS’ NEEDS
AVOIDANCE: NEEDINESS, UNWANTEDNESS

Type 3: Performer / Achiever

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Preciousness, Radiance, Value
Type 3's have a capacity to connect with the calling of their heart and that of the world to allow what wants to happen. They glow from the inside out finding ways to develop themselves, enhance and improve their lives, and inspiring us how to do it too. They are the world's cheerleaders!

Prison of my own making: I must be successful in everyone's eyes to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge & release my desire for attention and admiration. I can remember that success is an authentic expression of the heart, not changing myself to be whatever others want or expect me to be.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: VANITY, IMAGE
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: HOPE, RADIANCE
ATTENTION GOES TO: TASKS, GOALS, ROLES
AVOIDANCE: FAILURE, VALUELESSNESS

Type 4: Romantic / Individualist

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Depth, Authenticity, Beauty
Type 4's teach us about authenticity and about what matters. You can trust a Type 4 can bring the most important thing in the room and comment on it. They are deep and moving souls who can tell the story of who we are.

Prison of my own making: I must be unique, special, even extraordinary, to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge & release my strong attachments to feelings. I can remember that being grateful for what is - no matter how dark or hard - opens up my creative capacity to find the beauty and meaning therein.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: COMPARISON, LONGING, ENVY
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: AUTHENTICITY, EXPRESSION
ATTENTION GOES TO: WHAT’S MISSING, DISAPPOINTMENT
AVOIDANCE: ORDINARINESS, FEELING UNSEEN/UNHEARD

The Head Center: Types 5, 6, 7

Underlying Aversive Emotion:
Fear/Terror
If you are a Head Center type you tend to filter the world through the mental faculties. The goal of this strategy is to minimize anxiety, to manage potentially painful or hazardous situations, and to gain a sense of certainty through the intellectual processes of analyzing, envisioning, imagining, and planning. Of course, not only the Head Center types, but all types utilize intellectual intelligence to develop the higher qualities of the Head Center, such as wisdom, knowing, clarity, discernment, and thoughtfulness.

Underlying Feelings: Anxiousness, Angst, Frenzied, Scared

Affective State: Secure, Certain, Trusting

TYPE 5: REPRESSES Fear/Terror
TYPE 6: EXPRESSES Fear/Terror
TYPE 7: DENIES Fear/Terror

Type 5: Observer / Investigator

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Knowledge, Illumination, Clarity
Type 5's bring us illumination, wisdom and information. They help us to understand the truth of things, the why, and the complex. They are fountains of knowledge.

Prison of my own making: I must isolate from a world that wants too much and use my logic and gain knowledge to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge & release my fear of being powerless & overwhelmed by the outside world. I can remember that logic is only one way of knowing, my sense of knowing what's real expands exponentially.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: HOARDING, HOLDING OUT, PRIVACY
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: OMNISCIENCE, INNER WISDOM, CLARITY
ATTENTION GOES TO: INTRUSIONS, THINKING, POSTULATION
AVOIDANCE: DEPLETION, ANNIHILATION

Type 6: Skeptic / Loyalist

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Awakeness, Commitment, Loyalty
Type 6's come to teach us about awakeness, to sit and wait, allowing what we know to be true in our feelings to arise and then meet it. They teach us about loyalty, commitment and trust. They help us remember the power of community for survival, achievement and quality of life.

Prison of my own making: I cannot trust myself to find direction and secure ground. I need guidance to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge and release my feelings of dependency. I can remember that when I fully trust myself, suddenly I do not have to doubt where we are going or how to get there, I just know what I know and that is enough.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: ASSURANCE, ANGST
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: FAITH, GUARDIANSHIP
ATTENTION GOES TO: MAGNIFICATION, WORRY
AVOIDANCE: UNCERTAINTY, BETRAYAL

Type 7: Epicure / Enthusiast

The Essential Qualities: What's Right About You?
Freedom, Positivity, Joy
Type 7's come to teach us about joy and the freedom that comes from their capacity to be with themselves. They are flexible and adaptable in situations utilizing their powerful minds full of options.

Prison of my own making: I must be continually stimulated with positive, joyful, thoughts and experiences, to be OK.
My key to freedom: When I practice mindfulness and I am present to myself I can acknowledge & release my attachment to being stimulated all the time. I can remember when I release my fear of missing out, suddenly I have the freedom to experience the possibilities right where I am.

EMOTIONAL DRIVE: EXCITATION, STIMULATION
ESSENCE/TRUE NATURE: JOY, CONSTANCY
ATTENTION GOES TO: OPTIONS, DESIRES
AVOIDANCE: LIMITATION, DEPRIVATION

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