The Enneagram can be a liberating personality system to learn more about yourself. While most personality tests typically box people in, the Enneagram does the reverse with its intense level of engagement. It doesn’t call people out as much as it calls people in to find self-awareness. The Enneagram symbol, or diagram, reveals how we can move toward transcendental transformation and how we can also get trapped in suffering of our own making. Once these patterns have been created and repeated enough, these entrenched habits of dealing with the world form into an ego fixation that continues to shape our fears, motivations, and how we relate to the world. Ultimately, there isn’t an Enneagram type that’s inherently better, or worse, or something to reject or strive toward since all of the types are equally dealing with their own unique pain points and limitations. Your type is also influenced by variables, like your Enneagram wings and triads, which wield a tremendous amount of influence. Since the Enneagram figure is focused on dynamism and movement, your primary type has lines and arrows connected to “stretch” and “release” embodiment points that serve to offer alternative options. As a result, you can take on and adopt the healthy and unhealthy qualities from other Enneagram types. For example, when people-pleasing Twos feel like they’re being taken advantage of, they can move down to their Eight “stretch” point to have the confidence (and aggression) in expressing their anger and demands. Likewise, when they’re moving toward positive growth, they access their Four “release” point, wherein they can tap into their desire for individuality and focus on their own needs. In both scenarios, depending on their health level, they have the capacity to go into the high and/or the low sides of those numbers. That’s why promoting typist behavior can be harmful; it wrongly claims that we can’t evolve from our number. By learning from the Enneagram as a whole and from a place of fluidity, we can avoid narrowly framed stereotypes. The point of the Enneagram is to enter into a powerful growth journey that aims to empower you, not trap you. The system lifts the cover behind our mental stutters, forgotten parts, and deep wounds to illuminate a healthy path forward.
