Oprah, Brené and The Enneagram

I watched Dr. Brené Brown on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday this past weekend.  For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Brené Brown gave an awesome Ted talk that put her on the map about the power of vulnerability.  She has also written two books:  The Gift of Imperfection and Daring Greatly.

Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday is kind of like my church.  Spiritually, it is right on target for what I feel in my heart to be true.  But what also surprised and astounded me was how much I could connect what Brené and Oprah were talking about with the Enneagram.

In the segment, Brené was expounding upon why vulnerability is so important and how it’s the only way to achieve greater intimacy with our loved ones.  Oprah was asking her what that looked like in Brené’s own relationship with her husband.  As she described a scenario, in which case they were both teetering on the edge of a fight, she said that being vulnerable is pausing and being honest about where her mind was going.  She was making up certain “truths” in her head against her husband, putting her into an oppositional stance, that weren’t actually True.  She said her go-to postures are anger and blame.  I immediately thought of the Type 8.  Their go-to stance is very much anger and blame.  And the place they seldom venture is vulnerability. 

Brené and Oprah continued their conversation and they got on the topic of Perfectionism.  They were saying that perfectionism is like a mask, a shield of armor to protect the world from actually seeing you.  There is an inherent fear that underneath you are not good enough, so the strive towards perfectionism is really a race away from that fear of unworthiness.  This is a perfect (no pun intended) way to describe the plight of Type 1.    

The Enneagram is a psychological personality system, but equally, and almost more interesting to me is the spiritual component in the system.  Every type has a vice and a virtue.  Type 8’s Vice is lust and their Virtue is innocence.  Type 1’s Vice is anger (which usually looks more like resentment) and their Virtue is serenity.  What this means is that your strength is your greatest weakness and your weakness is your greatest strength.  They are two sides of the same coin.  In order to access the spiritual gifts of your virtue, you must go through the challenges of your vice.

Other Types Virtue and Vice:

Type 2: Humility and Pride

Type 3: Honesty and Deceit

Type 4: Equanimity and Envy

Type 5: Non-attachment and Avarice

Type 6: Courage and Fear

Type 7: Sobriety and Gluttony

Type 9: Right Action and Sloth

If you’re interested in learning more about the Enneagram’s Vice to Virtue conversion, contact me to set up an Individual Typing Session.

Thanks Brené and Oprah for giving me some awesome material this week!

Follow Up Friday: The Conversation I'm Starting

Follow Up Friday is a series where I check in on the questions and issues that I introduced on Tuesday's blog.

Turns out I didn't get any comments on my last blog to follow up on today.  Michael asked me how a Four would usually respond to that.  Great question, I thought!  My default reply was that I, as a Four, would feel rejected.  However, even as I said the word rejected, I knew I wasn't.  It didn't sit right with me.  In truth, I felt fine about it.  I understood.  I certainly am not the type to leave comments on other people's blogs, hey, I don't even read other people's blogs.  Yes, I was hoping I would get some of your thoughts and ideas in the comments, but I wasn't expecting it, and I didn't have an attachment to the outcome.  That non-attachment and release of expectation helped me to not take it personally, nor feel rejected.  Fantastic! 

On Wednesday night, I was serving tables at my job, and one of our beloved customers came in towards the end of the night.  If Woody Allen and Larry David had a love child it would be Harold.  Now, Harold is very particular.  He knows what he likes and what he doesn't like.  He wants butter with his bread, not our organic olive oil, and he wants it brought to his table immediately.  He wants a healthy pour on a wine glass, not a measured-out pour.  He wants the perfect amount of digestive time in between his two courses.  If his entree comes too early, he'll send it back; if too late, he'll demand it's arrival at once.  To some of my co-workers, this is off-putting, and I can understand why.  But to me, it's refreshing.  You always know where you stand with Harold.

We began talking and he told me that he had checked out my website (this blog) that we had spoken about the last time he was in.  I perked up and said, "Great!  What did you think?"  His response was "Meh--it didn't really catch my interest."  Again, typically, I would be personally offended by his very blunt critique of writing.  But, surprisingly, I didn't feel offended.  I checked in with myself, and I felt curious.  I asked him to tell me why, to give me more details.  We got into a great discussion about what it is I'm trying to do and put out there, and how to go about doing that.  At the end of the conversation, I had some genuine pearls of wisdom from Ol' Harold, and I had some questions that I wanted to continue to ask myself.

This blog is a work-in-progress.  The Enneagram is a complex system and it's difficult to convey its depth in soundbites.  It is best discovered through conversation between types.  As, I hope to turn on people who've never heard of the Enneagram, as well as pique the interests of those who are Enneagram devotees, it will be intriguing to discover where the sweet spot lies between authentically expressing myself and resonating with the readers.   

Finally, in the middle of the night, I woke up to go to the bathroom, and I remembered the dream I was having.  There was a young man in it and he was telling me (in regards to my blog), "It didn't resonate with me, but keep going, keep going."  I captured that experience as I groggily went back to bed.  This blog may not resonate with you yet, it may sometime in the future, or it may never.  And that's okay.  But, I'm gonna keep going, keep going.

Hope you have a great weekend!  I'll be back on Tuesday, and if you feel compelled to leave a comment on this blog, I will relish in reading it!

The Conversation I'm Starting

 There are those moments when you have a conversation with someone, and suddenly you're all bound together because you share your humanity in one simple moment.

-Ralph Fiennes

Love without conversation is impossible. 

- Mortimer Adler

There are those moments when you shake someone's hand, have a conversation with someone, and suddenly your all bound together because you share your humanity in one simple moment.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/conversation_4.html#yrMpsXTC2ehVqxpx.99

There are those moments when you shake someone's hand, have a conversation with someone, and suddenly your all bound together because you share your humanity in one simple moment.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/conversation_4.html#yrMpsXTC2ehVqxpx.99t

You know that little thing I say at the end of each blog post, something to the effect of "leave a comment?!"  Well, let me tell you a little bit more about the conversation I am hoping to start with you.

First of all, the way I connect is through sharing.  I tell about my experience in hopes that you will tell me about yours.  Share and Tell was always my favorite day in lower school. My boyfriend always jokes with me because he'll say something like "It's hot in here."  And I'll respond, "I'm not hot."  Or he'll say, "I'm tired."  To which I'll say, "I've got a ton of energy!"  And with love and a little bit of poking fun, he'll say, "It's not always about you."  I know it's not always about me, and I'm not trying to make it be.  It's not that I'm not hearing him, or that I don't care about his experience of the world.  It's that, as a Four, I am self-referencing, and oftentimes, I connect through comparison.  And I want to connect most of all.

Whenever I meet someone new, I always try to break the ice by sharing, usually a story.  Again, it's not because I am self-involved, although, I can be guilty of that, as well.  It's that I want to make the other person feel comfortable and that I am trustworthy.  So, if I am revealing, self-disclosing, and honest, maybe you will open up to me, too and together, we can forge a connection.

One of the reasons I was drawn to the Enneagram, was because it was such a helpful and spot-on road map to my patterns.  It was like a light bulb went off, or seeing clearly for the first time.  Everything just seemed to make sense.  Parts of myself that I had inherently known, but could never fully verbalize, came to the surface.  Like the joy that passes over a two-year old's face when he is first able to communicate "I'm hungry."  I was ecstatic that I could finally use words and concepts to describe aspects of myself that I had subconsciously known all along.  Now, I am also a diarist.  I keep fervid journals of my thoughts, discoveries and experiences.  I have been doing so for as long as I can remember, and therefore it's the easiest way I know how to express myself.

My intention for this blog is three-fold.  It's a way for me to express myself and my reflections.  It's a way for me to share with you the Enneagram system and how it shows up in day-to-day life.  And lastly, and most importantly, it's a way for me to connect with you by starting the conversation.

As a soon-to-be Certified Enneagram Consultant, I am trained in the Narrative Tradition.  This means that we learn about type by hearing from people's own experiences.  Through question and response, through stories, we get at what it means to be a specific type.  I am an expert at Type Four, and therefore, I can tell you all about what life is like from the perspective of a Four.  What I don't intrinsically know is what life is like from the other eight perspectives.  This is where you come in.  This is why I invite you to share.  So, please do!

Let's start with some fun beginner getting-to-know-you questions...

• What is a nickname that people call you?  (Not related to your actual name, but more related to your personality).
• What is one aspect of your personality that trips you up over and over again?
• How are you your own worst enemy and how are you your own best friend?

I am very much looking forward to reading your answers in the comments and following them up on Follow Up Friday!

Much love!