What is the Enneagram? Like I said last week, the Enneagram is a system for profound awareness and awakening.
But here’s what I didn’t say.
Through the Enneagram, we learn that there are nine major spheres of consciousness, or archetypes, or dimensions, or ways of being, that exist in the world. In other words, there are nine dramatically different orientations to life (or different lenses) and each of us specialises in one of these spheres of consciousness. This is what the Enneagram calls ‘personality types’ and are labeled Types One through to Nine.
These nine personality types each have specific and repeating patterns of thought, emotion, attention and behaviour. When these repeating patterns are unconscious, they often lead to a whole lot of dissatisfaction and suffering without us being able to point to the real source of it.
However, when we are able to increase our awareness of these unconscious patterns and of ourselves, possibly seeing ourselves clearly for the very first time, we are able to consciously move toward our True Nature. This leads us towards inner freedom, inner healing and a much more expansive energy that has us more present, more compassionate, more loving, more embracing of our authentic gifts and more aligned with our real purpose.
So what are these nine different ‘personality types’, these nine different spheres of consciousness, these nine different ways of being? Read below for a very brief summary.
The Nine Types
(as written by Roxanne Howard-Murphy, my teacher and mentor)
Type One: The reformer, perfectionist, judge, idealist.
A person dominate in this type focuses attention on how to be right and how to make things right. You can easily see what is wrong and what needs to be fixed. And you feel responsible for getting it done. You see yourself as rational and reasonable and like to know what the rules are. When attending a social gathering, you spend time in advance mentally practicing what you will do when you arrive. You deal with conflict by trying to be the adult in the room. You look for things that can be improved in yourself. And you are hard on yourself. Your inner critic feels almost impossible to please no matter how hard you try. You do not openly express anger but know what it is like to express resentment.
Type Two: The helper, the care taker, the altruist, the giver.
A person dominate in this type focuses attention on others. On relationships, on reaching out to others. You show people you care by doing things for them. Like an antenna you tune into what you think the needs of others are and you do your best to fulfil those needs often at the expense of your own. You see yourself as warm, caring, generous and willing to make sacrifices. It feels selfish for you to take care of yourself when others have so many needs. You appreciate being appreciated by others for what you do. And look for specific cues that tell you others approve of you. Resentment pops up if you feel others don’t see what you’ve done for them. Your approach to working through conflict is to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. The energy has an attunement to others, are reaching out to others.
Type Three: The achiever, communicator, the producer.
A person dominate in this type focuses attention on being the best they can be in life. Being successful, being accomplished. You play close attention to what others think it means to be successful. And you can adapt yourself demonstrate your ability to be successful in those ways. One of your core strategies in life is to be adaptable. You focus is on doing what it takes to reach the consistently high goals that you consistently set for yourself. It is important that others recognised your accomplishments. That recognition feels key to your own sense of value. Even if you feel fatigued you drive on with a can-do attitude. You deal with conflict by being logical, competent and efficient. This is an energy marching forward to the goal line, the finish line. Unemotional highly efficient.
Type Four: The romantic, the individualist, the sensitive one.
A person dominate in this type focuses attention on feelings. Feelings are experiences, the basis of identity. So when feelings change, well, so do I. It can be hard to feel a sense of solidity of oneself when feelings run one’s world. There is also a focus on looking for what is missing in me and an experience of being misunderstood. If this is you, you experience many emotions are are very familiar with sadness, longing and depression. You see yourself as being emotionally sensitive, uniquely special and uniquely flawed. And as if you are missing something essential that other people seem to have. If this is your dominate type, you enjoy beautiful things and try to create spaces and places that reflect your internal emotional life. Not surprisingly it is easy for you to express your feelings, sometimes intensely and dramatically as a way of dealing with conflict or stress. At higher levels of health an inner equilibrium helps you connect and express your personal emotional depth with the universal human experience. The energy has a deeply emotional tone to it. There is an energetic stance of wanting to be seen and understood. The higher nature of the four is recognising the beauty, depth and meaning that is inherent in all of life, including your own. It is important for each of us to experience the depth of life its joy and sorrows.
Type Five: The investigator, the analyst, the thinker, the sage.
Being a natural observer, a person dominate in this type focuses attention on ideas on gathering and analysing and storing mental information. The Five is more at home in mental activity, figuring out how things work, and in planning than interacting with others. He or she enjoys mastering information and having privacy. The sense of self is that of being competent, perceptive and smart. You may notice that it is hard to give much energy to other people, and the emotional requests and demands of others can feel overwhelming and even intrusive. You like your privacy and may feel intruded upon when others interrupt you or want your involvement. At higher levels of health you contribute your clarity, the ability to cut through the non-essential information to get to the heart of the matter, your ability to share your understanding can give great benefit to others. You can bring a sense of whimsy and playfulness. The energy is heady, the majority of activity takes place in the head and there is a disconnect from the body. This personality structure is a substituted for the qualities of crystal clarity of mind. In the quiet still mind there is access to deeper knowing called gnosis. Access to this is an important asset for all of us.
Type Six: The loyalist, the team player, the troubleshooter, the trooper.
If this is your dominate personality type you put your attention on how you can create safely and feel secure. The world can feel like a dangerous place. And you may experience anxiety because you don’t often trust your own decision or feel like you know what direction to go. You look for others for guidance but don’t necessarily trust the advice you are given. But, You feel like you are suppose to take some action, and what is it? You see yourself as responsible and loyal, and often are the glue for your family, work place or civic group. You may also feel like you are pulled in may different directions bot internally and externally. And can end up trying to balance a lot of obligations simultaneously. Leaving you feeling overwhelmed with commitments. You are observant as to what is going on around you and are good at troubleshooting potential problems. At the higher levels of healthy you are more trusting of your own intuitive knowing and provide a sense of safety for others as well as yourself.
Type Seven: The enthusiast, the optimist, the Epicurus, the adventurer.
If you are dominate in this type you take on life with enthusiasm and vigour. You enjoy variety and new and often exotic experiences. You put your attention on fun and what’s next. And you are a person on the go. You are a brainstormer with lots of ideas to share. You can be the life of the party. Others may look to you to initiate the excitement. Although that can get tiring at time and you can wear out both yourself and others. You see yourself as optimistic, witty, spontaneous and free. You may have difficulty staying on task, following up and completing projects. It is hard stay with difficult emotional situations. And you’d rather move on rather than feel like you might get stuck in an uncomfortable or painful situation. Your positive outlook leads you to try to make lemonade out of lemons. Your calendar is most often overflowing with things to do and you can over book yourself in the frenzy if you are not careful.
Type Eight: The challenger, the champion, the boss, the protector.
A person dominate in this type focuses attention on having power and control. You are comfortable with being charge, and expect others to listen to what you have to say and follow your lead. You are tuned into where the power is or is not when you enter a room full of people. Your direct style of communication is one of the ways you express your confidence & power. You have a lot of energy that others probably experience as intense at times. Anger, well its no big deal for you. You can easily get angry, and once you let off steam – you are fine. You value strength and straightforwardness and you see your self excelling in these areas. Being strong and in control is central to your sense of self. Can you feel the energy of this type. It is big, confident, assertive.
Type Nine: The peace maker, the mediator, the healer.
A person dominate in this type focuses attention on maintaining peace and harmony. You are more comfortable staying in the background and not bringing attention to yourself. Your antenna is attuned to keeping a distance from conflict that directly involves you and calming troubled waters. You see the sunny side of problems and encourage others to do the same. You are prone to ask others about themselves and spend more time listening than talking. When you walk into a room of acquaintances or unfamiliar people, you tend to feel on the outside rather than engaged in involved. And you’d much rather be alone than involved with others. You see yourself as peaceful, calm and unpretentious. In other words what you see is what you get. You don’t like anger and may feel you don’t have any. You value private time, and people and places that are calming and comfortable. You provide others a lot of space to be themselves. You can feel the energy is congenial, easy going accommodating, peaceful.
Whilst you may strongly resonate with one of these descriptions above, be super mindful that there is a big difference between how we ‘want to be seen’ and how we ‘actually function in life’.
To discover what your dominant type is I am offering Enneagram Discovery Sessions, a personalised facilitated coaching session all in the name of helping you discover your dominate type so you can laser in on your strengths and identify ways to break free from your unconscious automatic patterns that keep tripping you up. There are only 10 days left to get the intro offer and save $100. Send an email to [email protected] for more information. And check out what previous clients are saying…
Working with Susana was an awesome delight (yes I did just use those words together!) Her calm non-judgemental nature makes you feel relaxed and you get the sense that she is enjoying discovering your type just as much as you. Her questioning method is thorough without being probing and she knows just the right question to ask to make you feel shiny clear on your answer. Being able to have a little laugh here and there made the session relaxed. It was like having a deep and meaningful with your bestie over a cuppa on the couch, all while being on a voyage of self discovery where there is no wrong answer only enlightenment and ease. ~ Jacinta Rebola, WA
A huge thankyou for the session too. As much as it was a little raw, I felt really safe to open up. I actually felt like I’d had some sort of energy healing afterwards. I sat and meditated to breathe it all in. Your energy and style is awesome. I’m so glad I booked the session in. The timing was perfect and I’m looking forward to learning and growing from it. ~ Kate Holley, NSW
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