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I am sitting here at my desk gazing out the window at our oak trees as they drip-drop leaves, the only noticeable movement under today’s cloud-encrusted sky.  In the background, the Cranberries aptly croon: “In your head, in your he-ead, zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie.” The day, the music, it all plays perfectly to my melancholy mood. This has certainly been a week of insight and melodrama. I don’t know if you are like me, but I am addicted to joy. I love feeling happy. And when I don’t feel happy, I worry something is wrong with me; I feel as though I am losing myself. I attribute this to being an Enneagram 7. Enneagram 7’s have this ability to put a pretty frame around every circumstance, to “look on the bright side,” if you will. This is actually not always healthy. I used to become frustrated with my husband when he was down, assuming I was a better person since I didn’t ever allow myself to feel despair. It took me a long time to learn that, not only was I shutting my husband down, but I was also terrified of my own negative emotions. In controlling my husband’s feelings, I was covering up my own anxiety. I am learning to notice myself reframing difficult circumstances. When I do, I stop and listen to what’s really going on inside of me. I am learning that negative, even dark, feelings don’t mean the world is collapsing. Understanding more about myself through the lens of the Enneagram has been so good for me. And understanding my husband’s Enneagram number, and how his number interacts with mine, has been incredibly helpful in our marriage. So, What is the Enneagram? The Enneagram is a personality typing system. It is unique in that it not only points out your attributes and strengths, it also shines a light on your weaknesses and areas of improvement. It shows you what you look like when you are unhealthy and what you look like when you are healthy. One profound insight I had when I first began learning about the Enneagram was how much each Enneagram type draws strength and wisdom from the others; in other words, we humans need each other. The Enneagram Institute describes the equality of the types in this way: “No type is inherently better or worse than any other. While all the personality types have unique assets and liabilities, some types are often considered to be more desirable than others in any given culture or group. Furthermore, for one reason or another, you may not be happy being a particular type. You may feel that your type is “handicapped” in some way. As you learn more about all the types, you will see that just as each has unique capacities, each has different limitations. If some types are more esteemed in Western society than others, it is because of the qualities that society rewards, not because of any superior value of those types. The ideal is to become your best self, not to imitate the assets of another type.” I think this is one reason why all the diagrams of the Enneagram look like circles with nine points. Each point stands for one Enneagram type. According to Don Riso and Russ Hudson in their book The Wisdom of the Enneagram, “The Enneagram is a geometric figure that maps out the nine fundamental personality types of human nature and their complex interrelationships. It is a development of modern psychology that has roots in spiritual wisdom from many different ancient traditions.” I am fascinated by human behavior, so from the moment I heard about the Enneagram, I was hooked. Unfortunately, I have noticed that as the Enneagram is becoming popular, some people are embracing generalizations about the numbers. An example is my number, type 7. We are often stereotyped as shallow people who like to party and have a good time. While this is certainly true of some type 7’s, it is not true of me. I am a quieter type 7. I actually have many traits which make me look like an Enneagram 2. A Brief Summary of the Nine Types From The Wisdom of the Enneagram You can find information about the Enneagram just about anywhere on the internet. I typed out some information from the book here for you because I heard an Enneagram teacher say once that the best way to discover your type is to ask what your greatest fear is and what your greatest desire is, rather than only taking a test or relying on general descriptions. So without further ado, here are the nine types:
How Knowing My Number Has Helped Me Most Enneagram teachers show what each number looks like in health or in stress. Each Enneagram number actually behaves like a specific other number when it is moving towards either health or crisis. Again, read this article to understand this better: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/how-the-enneagram-system-works. Acknowledging my “7-ness” has helped me to see that it is okay not to feel happy all the time. It has helped me realize that under my “togetherness”, I struggle with darker emotions. For example, when I am stressed, I act like an unhealthy Enneagram 1. This means that I will suddenly be pissed off at how messy the house is. I’ll run around like a crazy person trying to clean and be very down on myself for not being perfect or having it all together. I will also bury myself in busyness. I’ll buy a myriad of books and read a little bit of every one of them without finishing any. I’ll refuse to have silence around me: music or podcasts on at all times. I’ll feel antsy, go on shopping sprees and spend too much money. I’ll avoid people. I used to just give in to these sudden feelings. Now I realize that when I do that I am struggling with emotions, and I need to spend some time in quietude, meditating or writing to get in touch with what is actually bothering me. I highly recommend discovering your Enneagram number. Here are some resources to guide you: The Wisdom of the Enneagram The Road Back to You Enneagram and Coffee https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ http://www.sleepingatlast.com/ What Does All This Have To Do With My Current Mood? I am at the cusp of some life changes, and I am overcome with a myriad of emotions. I have been feeling anxious and acting out on that anxiety. Luckily, I recognize anxious behavior for what it is, and I’m working on meditating and writing. I have had this lie in my head for so long: I can’t be a mom and anything else. The lie tells me that if I pursue something like education or a career or business, I am rejecting my family. This lie has kept me trapped and in pain for quite some time. I’m very committed to homeschooling my children. I see the fruit of it in their lives. They are receiving a stress-free childhood in which they can grow at their own pace and pursue their passions. On the flip side, my youngest is now six, and I know my kiddos won’t be at home forever. And when they move out, I want to be doing a job I love. As I dream and begin to pursue my passions, I struggle. I struggle with anxiety my son’s cancer will return. Because of the shock of cancer, I feel like our family is catastrophe’s playground; if cancer doesn’t strike again, I have this awful foreboding that something else horrid will happen. So, my anxiety queries, why should I pursue anything or get excited? I struggle with fear that pursuing my dreams will take me too far away from my little ones, and I will miss out on their childhoods. I struggle with terror that I will pick the wrong career and live the rest of my life trapped by debt and unhappiness. I struggle with my unfair advantage and privilege. So many women don’t have the time to pursue a new career at my age. I know I will only be truly happy if I am making a difference in this world for the better. I see so many possibilities to do this...But, how do I choose only one?? And yet. And yet I know that if I sit around and do nothing to develop myself and grow and change, I will implode. So it is time to move and make decisions and let the chips fall where they may. The time has come for me to take a deep breath and step into the unknown, to use what I have been given and multiply it, to pick up those loose threads and see where they take me. Have you ever made big changes and struggled with grieving the past or fear of the future? How did you deal with ALL THE BIG FEELINGS, especially if you’re not a fan of feeling all the feels? To finish up, I will leave myself, and you, with the magical wisdom of Anne Lamott, “Bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
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