What is the Enneagram and how would I use it?
The Enneagram (pronounced 'any-a-gram') is about discovering your greatest gift, the one dominant energy that drives you and is present in everything you do. Because it is our greatest gift we use it too much and it becomes our chief difficulty. This limits our view of other people and ourselves.
The Enneagram offers profound psychological insights into the nine different ways people organise their patterns of perception. It offers a kind of road map where you can discover how you think and feel and relate to other people. The idea is to learn to shift your habitual way of dealing with the world and become a more broadminded person. Knowing your own style can help to bring about a positive opportunity for change.
Nine Types - Nine Paths to Fulfilment
A fundamental element of the Enneagram is its description of nine distinct personality types, each of which has a distinctive pattern of thought, feeling and action. Each of the nine types is rooted in a specific viewpoint or belief structure that largely determines what is important to you and how you interact with the world to fulfil your hopes and dreams. Each type has its beneficial and challenging traits.
The Nine Pointed Star
The nine personality types are arranged on an enneagram, which is an unusual nine-pointed star-like diagram that has been known for hundreds of years. The diagram shows key relationships between the types. Using the diagram, this system also describes the dynamic changes that occur in personality in situations of stress and ease.
The Benefits
As you discover more about your Enneagram personality type, you will also be learning about the unconscious motivations that determine much of your behaviour. Understanding your Enneagram personality type can literally change your life - not only in your relationships with yourself and others, but in the way you cope with all issues and situations.
Who Uses It?
The Enneagram today is being used by individuals, groups, educators, therapists, and business consultants to improve communication and relationships, and lessen misunderstandings. This tool is also being used in a number of different spiritual traditions as an aid to spiritual development. In its richest sense the Enneagram is used for one's own psychological and spiritual development, and not for stereotyping others or justifying one's own actions.
