Celebrating
Who You Are Through The Enneagram:
Understanding Self and Others Better
by
Cindy Feldmeier |
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The
Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality tool for understanding
self and others, as well as for creating a personal map for
change. Its components originate from antiquity, and it incorporates
wisdom from Sufi mystics, Christian, Buddhism Islamic, Taoist
and Jewish traditions. Within it lie elements of numerology
and Pythagorean concepts, as well as the Jewish Kabbalah Tree
of Life. This is no ordinary typing tool! The Enneagram is a
circular concept; arrows and wings connect nine types to one
another. It has been based on healthy personality development
and the Enneagram geometric figure can be used to create a positive
metaphor for celebration of differences, and understanding of
self, relationships and others. Simple, elegant and compassionate,
it is both surprisingly easy to understand and deeply complex.
With knowledge of the basic nine personalities, the strengths
and the fears of each type, a framework is created to both better
understand oneself, and begin to create more harmonious relationships
with people in our life. This ancient model of wholeness and
interconnectedness has been developed for use in settings as
diverse as business, spirituality, relationship and personal
growth.
The
basic premise of the tool is that we each have one primary unconscious
motivation, from which we operate and filter our experiences
and reactions to the world. Our personality has developed from
this unconscious motivation in order to protect us from what
was most threatening or fearful to us, based on an inborn orientation.
Each type is motivated by a “passion” to maintain
this personality structure that we have come to believe protects
us from what is most fearful. Each type also has a “virtue”,
towards which one may evolve and thus move towards wholeness.
The Enneagram is divided into three triads, the Heart Center,
the Head Center and the Gut Center; this can be a starting place
for finding one’s own type. In the Heart Center, types
2,3,4 are concerned with making heart connections and are focused
on how others perceive them. In the Head Center, types 5,6,7
have issues with fear and anxiety. The Gut Center types 8,9,1
deal with self-forgetting and anger. Each of the types within
the Centers has learned to cope very differently with the primary
concern.
The
name, Enneagram, means “nine points” in Greek. Here
are the nine basic types of the Enneagram, with some of the
words that might begin to describe the personality of the number:
1. “Improver, Reformer, Critic, Perfectionist”
2. “Giver, Carer, Nurturer, Helper”
3. “Achiever, Performer, Producer, Motivator”
4. “Artist, Tragic/Romantic, Connoisseur,
Individualist”
5. “Perceiver, Sage, Observer, Intellectualist”
6. “Relator, Loyalist, Troubleshooter, Questioner”
7. “Enthusiast, Epicure, Adventurer, Visionary”
8. “Boss, Asserter, Challenger, Leader”
9. “Peacemaker, Acceptor, Mediator, Harmonizer”
In addition to the nine basic types, our personality is influenced
by the attributes one may take on from those types directly
next to ours (our wings) or by the arrows that connect us (our
stress and secure points). Unlike the limited types available
using some of the traditional personality sorting tools, the
Enneagram has an unlimited possibility of type combinations,
thus freeing us to move into “wholeness!” As one learns
more about the movement along the arrows and from wing to wing,
the Enneagram begins to take on a more profound nature, creating
a framework for enrichment and growth, for those willing to
delve deeper. The Enneagram is an insightful tool for all those
who seek to shed the ego driven personality and discover essential
wholeness of the true Self.
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