Personality types are so important within relationships, workplace, and spiritual community. I want to take the next 9 days to really explore the different types, so follow along on instagram.
If you are new to the world of personality tests, the Enneagram Institute describes the test by stating, "At its core, the Enneagram helps us to see ourselves at a deeper, more objective level and can be of invaluable assistance on our path to self-knowledge.."
Chris Heuertz, author of The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth, in a recent interview says, "Yes. The Enneagram shows us our ego’s set of coping addictions that we’ve wrapped up around a childhood wound so that we don’t have to be truthful about the pain it’s caused us. Until we’re honest about this, we lie to ourselves and others about who we really are.The Enneagram’s nine types form a sort of color wheel that describes the basic archetypes of humanity’s tragic flaws, sin tendencies, primary fears, and unconscious needs. As a sacred map to our soul, the Enneagram is a blueprint for developing character that each of us carries throughout our life, but one that we don’t open until we discover our type.
When asked about the role of the Enneagram in the Christian faith, Heuertz replied, "One of my teachers, Russ Hudson says, “Type isn’t a ‘type’ of person, but a path to God.” I believe it’s sacred because as a map of our soul it’s a compassionate sketch of possibilities. The Enneagram is less about nine “types of people” and more about nine paths back to our true selves and nine paths to divine love.
If we can’t self-observe, then we can’t self correct. The Sacred Enneagram helps us self observe, helps us tell the truth about who we really are coming clean from our delusions and illusions, so that we can locate the authentic source of our identity."
The last quote I want to share with you is about why Christians are so drawn to the test, I think this is really powerful.
"Because the truth of the Enneagram–that each and every one of us is beautiful and beloved by God–resonates with all of us. We also know the Enneagram’s tragic truth that many of us don’t live into the gifts and grace of that truth. Many people allow fragments of their identity to lay claim to the whole of who they think they are. This only leads to an addictive loop of our mental and emotional preoccupations. This is how we get ourselves lost. The challenge is to find our way home. The Enneagram helps us begin an honest interrogation of the depths of our identity, of who we really are. When we accept our inherent beauty, we find the courage to examine what makes us beautiful—to honestly encounter both the good and the bad, the shadow and the light. More than anything I’ve encountered, the Enneagram helps us do just that."
I took the Enneagram recently, to see how my number changed, but in the moments I spent reading afterwards about all the types, it became so clear just how all the types reflect GOD. Individually and as the body of Christ, we are all created differently and in such great detail. We manifest the likeness of God, differently but none less than any other. There is no comparison.
Type 1- The Reformer
Type 2- The Helper
Type 3- The Achiever
Type 4- The Individualist
Type 5- The Investigator
Type 6- The Loyalist
Type 7- The Enthusiast
Type 8-The Challenger
Type 9- The Peacemaker
Type One:
Ones have a “sense of mission” that leads them to want to improve the world in various ways, using whatever degree of influence they have. They strive to overcome adversity—particularly moral adversity—so that the human spirit can shine through and make a difference.
Personal growth:
Learn to relax. Take some time for yourself.
Your words and above all, your example may do more good than you realize, although they may take longer than you expect.
It is important for you to get in touch with your feelings
Try to step back and see that your anger alienates people
Levels:
Best- Become extraordinarily wise and discerning. By accepting what is, they become transcendentally realistic, knowing the best action to take in each moment. Humane, inspiring, and hopeful: the truth will be heard.
Average- high-minded idealists, feeling that it is up to them to improve everything: crusaders, advocates, critics
Worst- Become obsessive about imperfection and wrongdoing
Type Two:
In short, healthy Twos are the embodiment of “the good parent” that everyone wishes they had: someone who sees them as they are, understands them with immense compassion, helps and encourages with infinite patience, and is always willing to lend a hand—while knowing precisely how and when to let go. Healthy Twos open our hearts because theirs are already so open and they show us the way to be more deeply and richly human.
Personal Growth:
Transformational work entails going into dark places in ourselves, and this very much goes against the grain of the Two’s personality structure, which prefers to see itself in only the most positive, glowing terms.
Levels:
Best/Balanced-they really are loving, helpful, generous, and considerate.
Average-believe they must always put others first and be loving and unselfish if they want to get love. The problem is that “putting others first” makes Twos secretly angry and resentful, feelings they work hard to repress or deny.
Worst/Unhealthy-present a false image of being completely generous and unselfish and of not wanting any kind of pay-off for themselves, when in fact, they can have enormous expectations and unacknowledged emotional needs.
Type Three:
The Achiever because when they are healthy, Threes really can and do achieve great things in the world. They are the "stars" of human nature, and people often look up to them because of their graciousness and personal accomplishments.
Personal Growth:
Everyone needs attention, encouragement, and the affirmation of their value in order to thrive, and Threes are the type which most exemplifies this universal human need.
Levels:
Best/Healthy- elf-accepting, inner-directed, and authentic, everything they seem to be. Modest and charitable, self-deprecatory humor and a fullness of heart emerge. Gentle and benevolent.
Average-Highly concerned with their performance, doing their job well, constantly driving self to achieve goals as if self-worth depends on it. Terrified of failure. Compare self with others in search for status and success. Become careerists, social climbers, invested in exclusivity and being the "best."
Worst/Unhealthy-Fearing failure and humiliation, they can be exploitative and opportunistic, covetous of the success of others, and willing to do "whatever it takes" to preserve the illusion of their superiority.
Type Four:
Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living.
Personal Development:
Connect with people who understand them and their feelings. The “romantics” of the Enneagram, they long for someone to come into their lives and appreciate the secret self that they have privately nurtured and hidden from the world.
Levels:
Best/Healthy- Profoundly creative, expressing the personal and the universal, possibly in a work of art. Inspired, self-renewing and regenerating: able to transform all their experiences into something valuable: self-creative.
Average-To stay in touch with feelings, they interiorize everything, taking everything personally, but become self-absorbed and introverted, moody and hypersensitive, shy and self-conscious, unable to be spontaneous or to "get out of themselves." Stay withdrawn to protect their self-image and to buy time to sort out feelings.
Worst/Unhealthy-When dreams fail, become self-inhibiting and angry at self, depressed and alienated from self and others, blocked and emotionally paralyzed. Ashamed of self, fatigued and unable to function.
Type 5:
Fives are alert, insightful, and curious- independent, innovative, and inventive. They are able to concentrate and focus on developing complex ideas and skills.
Personal Development:
Investigating "unknown territory"—knowing something that others do not know, or creating something that no one has ever experienced—allows Fives to have a niche for themselves that no one else occupies.
Levels:
Best/Healthy- visionary pioneers, often ahead of their time, and able to see the world in an entirely new way
Average-Begin conceptualizing and fine-tuning everything before acting—working things out in their minds: model building, preparing, practicing, and gathering more resources. Studious, acquiring technique. Become specialized, and often "intellectual," often challenging accepted ways of doing things.
Worst/Unhealthy-Become reclusive and isolated from reality, eccentric and nihilistic. Highly unstable and fearful of aggressions: they reject and repulse others and all social attachments.
Type 6:
Sixes are reliable, hard-working, responsible, and trustworthy.
Personal Development:
Until they can get in touch with their own inner guidance, Sixes are like a ping-pong ball that is constantly shuttling back and forth between whatever influence is hitting the hardest in any given moment.
Levels:
Best/Healthy-Become self-affirming, trusting of self and others, independent yet symbiotically interdependent and cooperative as an equal. Belief in self leads to true courage, positive thinking, leadership, and rich self-expression.
Average-Start investing their time and energy into whatever they believe will be safe and stable. Organizing and structuring, they look to alliances and authorities for security and continuity. Constantly vigilant, anticipating problems.
Worst/Unhealthy-Fearing that they have ruined their security, they become panicky, volatile, and self-disparaging with acute inferiority feelings. Seeing themselves as defenseless, they seek out a stronger authority or belief to resolve all problems. Highly divisive, disparaging and berating others
Type 7:
Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over-extended, scattered, and undisciplined.
Personal Development:
Basic Desire of Sevens is to be satisfied, happy, and fulfilled, and when they are balanced within themselves, their joy and enthusiasm for life naturally affect everyone around them. They remind us of the pure pleasure of existence—the greatest gift of all.
Levels:
Best/Healthy-Assimilate experiences in depth, making them deeply grateful and appreciative for what they have. Become awed by the simple wonders of life: joyous and ecstatic. Intimations of spiritual reality, of the boundless goodness of life.
Average-Unable to discriminate what they really need, become hyperactive, unable to say "no" to themselves, throwing self into constant activity. Uninhibited, doing and saying whatever comes to mind: storytelling, flamboyant exaggerations, witty wise-cracking, performing. Fear being bored: in perpetual motion, but do too many things—many ideas but little follow through.
Worst/Unhealthy-Desperate to quell their anxieties, can be impulsive and infantile: do not know when to stop. Addictions and excess take their toll: debauched, depraved, dissipated escapists, offensive and abusive.
Type 8:
Eights are self-confident, strong, and assertive. Protective, resourceful, straight-talking, and decisive.
Personal Development:
Eights “take the heat,” knowing that any decision cannot please everyone.
Beneath the tough façade is vulnerability, although it has been covered over by layer of emotional armor.
Eights, let yourself be vulnerable and rely on others.
Levels:
Best/Healthy-Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.
Average-Self-sufficiency, financial independence, and having enough resources are important concerns: become enterprising, pragmatic, "rugged individualists," wheeler-dealers. Risk-taking, hardworking, denying own emotional needs.
Worst/Unhealthy-Defying any attempt to control them, become completely ruthless, dictatorial, "might makes right." The criminal and outlaw, renegade, and con-artist. Hard-hearted, immoral and potentially violent.
Type 9:
Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting.
Personal Development:
Nines tend to focus on the “bright side of life” so that their peace of mind will not be shaken. But rather than deny the dark side of life, what Nines must understand is that all of the perspectives presented by the other types are true, too. Nines must resist the urge to escape into “premature Buddhahood” or the “white light” of the Divine and away from the mundane world. They must remember that “the only way out is through.”
Levels:
Best/Healthy-Become self-possessed, feeling autonomous and fulfilled: have great equanimity and contentment because they are present to themselves. Paradoxically, at one with self, and thus able to form more profound relationships. Intensely alive, fully connected to self and others.
Average-Fear conflicts, so become self-effacing and accommodating, idealizing others and "going along" with their wishes, saying "yes" to things they do not really want to do. Fall into conventional roles and expectations. Use philosophies and stock sayings to deflect others.
Worst/Unhealthy-Can be highly repressed, undeveloped, and ineffectual. Feel incapable of facing problems: become obstinate, dissociating self from all conflicts. Neglectful and dangerous to others.
I know this is a lot of information, but there is a final thought I want to leave you with:
God is all of these things. He is in all of us. He is who we aim to mirror and we all carry traits of the God most High. Remember, we are all made in His image. How can we long for more of an identity than that?
I hope reading these words finds you where you are and encourages you. I hope you feel like you have community and KNOW your identity is in Christ.
Dearly,
Mackenzie Byrd
Take the free Enneagram here.
Take the in depth ($12) test here.
Sources: The Enneagram Institute & the "Religion News" website.
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