The Enneagram of Personality is a powerful tool for personal and collective transformation. Stemming from the Greek words ennea (nine) and grammos (a written symbol), the nine-pointed Enneagram symbol represents nine distinct strategies for relating to the self, others and the world. Each Enneagram point has a different pattern of thinking, feeling and acting that arises from a deeper inner motivation or worldview. We navigate our life with one of the points at our core, though we have each of them in us, the one at our core is fundamental to our life navigation.
Type One is principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic.
Type Two is generous, demonstrative, people-pleasing, and possessive.
Type Three is adaptable, excelling, driven, and image-conscious.
Type Four is expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental.
Type Five is perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.
Type Six is engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious.
Type Seven is spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered.
Type Eight is self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational.
Type Nine is receptive, reassuring, complacent, and resigned.
Determining our personality type through the Enneagram does not put us in a box, but helps us see the box from which we experience the world. With this awareness, we can step outside of our limited perspective. Personality is an effective way to navigate this world, but challenges arise when our point of view becomes rigid and we get stuck in automatic habits. By discovering these unconscious patterns, we can lead more fulfilling lives, enjoy healthier relationships, and connect to our true essence.
We live our life using our core enneagram type as a filter to experience life. There are however levels to the enneagram in which we exhibit, Healthy, Average, and Unhealthy characteristics. Healthy means that we are aware of our personality but are not driven by its impulsive needs. Average means we start to see how our actions are controlled but are not able to live always beyond it. Unhealthy means we are stuck in the densest forms of our personality.