Spiritual Direction & the Enneagram
The Enneagram
What is it?
The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system… Read more.
The Enneagram in Spiritual Direction
The Enneagram can be helpful in spiritual direction as a tool for spiritual growth. It offers language for what we know to be true about ourselves but may have had difficulty articulating, including our core motivations, fears, and desires. It describes the personality (or coping mechanisms) we have employed subconsciously in order to protect ourselves.
As we grow and mature, we may find that these patterns of protective behaviors are no longer serving us well. Though they were once helpful, they may begin to do more harm than good to us and to our relationships.
A key element of Enneagram work involves nonjudgmental self-observation, which increases our self-awareness. Instead of reacting without thinking, we can learn to respond from a grounded, balanced place, informed by the wisdom from all three centers of intelligence (the thinking center, the feeling center, and the intuitive center). With increased awareness, we can be more intentional about allowing protective patterns to fall away, at a pace and in a context that, while sometimes uncomfortable, feels tolerable. At this point, we are ripe for deep transformation.
The power to choose a response instead of reacting brings about a new sense of freedom and agency. Freedom involves choice. Choice often results from awareness. This fits well with spiritual direction, where the primary goal is to grow in freedom.
Like other wisdom tools and teachings, Enneagram work involves a paradox of surrender (“I can be with reality without trying to control it.”) combined with agency (“I can choose how I respond and have compassion for myself when I don’t respond the way I wish I had.”).
In spiritual direction, we practice nonjudgmental self-observation. We work on noticing our habitual patterns and exploring the ways we have protected ourselves. Understanding behavior often results in growth in self-compassion. We explore how these patterns show up in our bodies, signaling when we are reacting versus when we are responding. This fits in with the Ignatian idea of noticing what draws us and what repels us as we seek to bring our whole, true selves before the Holy for healing.
My Enneagram training & experience
Questions? Contact Lindsay.
If you have questions about spiritual direction or the Enneagram and would like to schedule a free introductory Zoom call, please contact me below. I look forward to hearing from you!
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