Freeing Yourself From Your Enneagram Type
The current Enneagram personality types evolved from Oscar Ichazo's ego types. These ego types refer to a number of Enneagrams describing such things as fixations, passions, traps, holy ideas and virtues. The purpose of these Enneagrams was to help an individual become free of mental, emotional and behavioral habits.
So, what does this mean exactly and how do you do that using the Enneagram personality types?
One reason we're stuck repeating those habits is because they've become mostly automatic. So, the first thing to do is become consciously aware of how those habits operate within us. Once you see how you automatically respond to certain situations then you can begin asking whether there are better ways to respond. Instead of ignorantly saying "I don't know why I always do that," understand what that response is seeking then determine responses that better serve that goal. What you're doing is adding choice where there was none before and freedom is a lot about having choice.
With the Enneagram types, determining your type is only the beginning. Once you know your type then you can begin looking for how your type is expressed in your personality. Your Enneagram type becomes a lens through which you observe your thoughts, emotions and behavior.
A typical error people make in this approach is that they try to get rid of their type. Any habit seen through the filter of type is seen as something to be cut out like a cancer. What often happens with this attitude is that the individual oscillates between two selves - the bad self as seen through type and the ideal self as seen through the transcendance of type. This can create a tortuous conflict within an individual where hope rises with the possibility of transcending type and dies with the futility of the effort.
Our habitual responses will be appropriate in some situations and inappropriate in other situations. We simply need to recognize this and learn other ways of responding to those situations when they require something other than the habitual response. Think of it simply as adding choices to how you respond.
The Enneagram types are good for providing insight into what keeps you habitually stuck. You still have to do the tedious work of exploring what can be done to add choice and alternatives to these habitual patterns of thought, emotion and behavior.
Although the Enneagram types provide an understanding, you'll likely have to look elsewhere for the methods.
