How Knowing Your Enneagram Type Can Make You Healthier & Happier
The Enneagram is a powerful tool for transformation.
Josep Suria / shutterstock.com Learning to let go of old habits that no longer serve you, and build new healthy habits are vital to becoming a better, healthier you. Making a constant effort to let go will help you well in the here and now.
It is a matter of learning to notice when you are stuck, using your personality type to help find a solution, and then make better choices that will serve you..
When you practice new ways and habits, you will build new neural pathways to help you find greater flow in your life.
There is a better way — using your Enneagram — to implement healthier habits in your everyday life. This method can be helpful if you are willing to do the long-term work of becoming more and more of your true self.
What is the Enneagram?
The Enneagram is a powerful tool for transformation. It can help you build healthy habits that will help you to be the best you can be.
Most people know the Enneagram as a personality type system. However, naming your personality type is a small part of what it is all about.
At its best, the Enneagram is a psychological-spiritual map to help you become self-aware, noticing the habits that no longer serve you and learning new ways of being that will bring you joy, purpose and the freedom to be your best self.
Your primary Type will never change — your levels of health shift, which will impact how you show up in the world. As you get healthier in your type, you will get stronger in all nine Enneagram types.
Pay attention to yourself in action.
With the help of the Enneagram, you can learn how to observe yourself in action. Knowing your type will help you watch out for certain behaviors and give clues on how you can make better choices that will help you create healthy habits.
This work is about creating new neural pathways that will get stronger every time you practice a new way of being that brings out the best in you. The stronger your neural pathways are, the easier it will be to build new habits that serve you.
Remember that you have all nine types within you so that you can learn from every type.
Steps that lead to better health for each Enneagram type.
1. Type One: The Reformer
As a Type One, you can build healthy habits by lowering your expectations of yourself and others around you. Learn to be okay with doing your best. Learn to be okay with doing an OK job.
Learn to befriend your inner critic. You might want to give your inner critic a name so you have a conversation with this part of you.
Remember, there is more than one right way. Get out of your mind and into the heart and gut. Learn to trust your instincts. Get "messy," lighten up, play and have fun; learn to relax.
2. Type Two: The Helper
As a Type Two, you can build healthy habits by acknowledging your worth and value. Learn to identify and acknowledge your own needs and feelings in order to receive help from others.
Utilize anger as a sign that you have needs that are unmet. Learn to acknowledge your limits and accept there are some things about yourself that just are.
3. Type Three: The Achiever
As a Type Three, you can build healthy habits when you learn to be more introspective to discover your inner life and your purpose. Accept failure as a normal part of life.
Sometimes we learn the most from our failures. Differentiate between your real feelings and your image-driven ones. Pay attention to your self-care, especially your physical needs and learn to relax.
4. Type Four: The Individualist
As a Type Four, you can build healthy habits when you appreciate what you already have.
Learn to accept the ordinary as just fine and that the status quo is acceptable. Overcome your addiction to misery to find your freedom and bliss.
Get present through your three centers of intelligence and release the fantasizing about the past or future. Learn to see beauty everywhere and not just in the exceptional and suffering.
5. Type Five: The Investigator
As a Type Five, you can build healthy habits by learning to share your insights even when you don't think you know enough. Your friends, colleagues, and family are eager for you to share your thoughts.
Learn to speak up and add your ideas, and don't wait to formulate a conclusion. Reach out to others, take risks, and be expressive.
Lighten up, and let your enthusiasm and zest for life emerge. Focus on the abundance of life and strengthen your spirit of generosity and giving.
6. Type Six: The Loyalist
As a Type Six, you can build healthy habits when you learn to quiet your mind. Learn to differentiate between manufactured fear and something you should be worried about in the world.
Limit your tendency to over-question and project doubt onto others. Ask for feedback: "Does my fear/doubt seem proportionate to the reality of the situation?
Imagine the positive instead of the negative. Focus on the good instead of the bad. Practice affirming yourself and the positive things going on in the world.
7. Type Seven: The Enthusiast
As a Type Seven, you can build healthy habits when you slow down to feel what is happening inside you. Learn to accept pain and limitation in the present moment while still having an enjoyable life of possibilities.
Pick something to commit to and stick with it until you follow through. Slow down to stay in the moment. Stop your habit of justifying your negative behaviors and practice living in the moment.
Develop and take care of significant relationships. Value maturity and personal growth and be honest when needed.
8. Type Eight: The Challenger
As a Type Eight, you can build healthy habits when you risk opening your heart to be vulnerable. You can strengthen your heart by building relationships of trust with others.
Learn to manage and control your anger so your anger will no longer be destructive. Develop a softness by becoming more reflective and self-aware.
Reduce intensity and impulsiveness by making space for self-reflection before reacting. Find the right moment for confrontation and deliver constructive feedback so you can be heard and understood.
9. Type Nine: The Peacemaker
As a Type Nine, you can build better habits when you share your desires, wishes, opinions, and wisdom with others.
Learn to recognize your anger and use it as a resource for change. Be brave in the face of necessary conflict and don't soothe or hide.
Learn to be more selfish to know and claim what you want. Stay in the body through vigorous physical exercise. Identify your needs and desires and stay present and engaged until the task gets done or the problem is fixed.
Roland Legge is an author, Certified Spiritual Life Coach, and teacher of the Enneagram. He helps people connect to their inner self and find alignment with their highest purpose and values.