Maybe you clicked on this page because you have already found your way to the Enneagram or Meyers Briggs Typology systems, or perhaps you just saw a funny word and decided to investigate and learn more. Whatever your reason for reading this, I believe that you’re supposed to be here. The Enneagram is a tool that healers used during Ancient Egyptian times. From there it found its way through the Christian, Jewish (Kabbalah), and Islam (Sufi) traditions. So perhaps you have heard about it from your spiritual community, or perhaps you don’t identify with any religion. Whatever your background, the Enneagram teachings can help you to see parts of yourself that you haven’t had access to and understand others whose actions have been sometimes confusing.
The Enneagram contains the studies of the instinctual drives, the passions, and the fixations. The instinctual drives are what control our animal nature. They are hard wired reactions that are there to keep us alive, in community, and connected to creative energies. When conscious, these drives fuel us in healthy directions. When unconscious, we are disconnected from our essential nature and we feel tired, lonely, and uninspired. The passions are what make us suffer. Many have heard of “the passion of Christ” that the Christian community celebrates every Good Friday. The word “passion” comes from the Latin word, “paseo” which means to suffer. Each one of us contains a heart wound that we are invited to heal so that we can connect with the great symphony of life with love, hope, and faith instead of hatred, despair, and fear. The fixations are mental beliefs that we sometimes become stuck in, to our own detriment. The Enneagram can show us the way back to our True Nature and open us to immense possibility.
The Meyers Briggs system sometimes gets a bad rap because corporate structures have used it to pigeonhole employees. More advanced students of this modality are aware that each of the 16 Meyers Briggs types contains 8 Jungian cognitive functions in a specific order. Think of your Meyers Briggs type as a kind of operating system. Your Enneagram Type directs what you do and your Meyers Briggs type tells a person what strategies you’re likely to choose to get it done. Each of us has four syntonic or conscious functions and four dystonic or subconscious functions. Like the Enneagram work, each one of us has more or less aptitude with the different functions, and it’s up to us to develop our less developed parts.
Dr. Nance has classes that can help you to learn these systems and offers 1:1 coaching to help you discover you best fit type. And once you know your type there’s the question of what to do with it. The possibilities are endless. Schedule a consultation to learn more about how to develop your own unique opportunities and navigate more gracefully your personal challenges.