This episode is a deep dive into the Enneagram types. I walk you through the various types and subtypes as a way to help understand the motivations and behaviors we demonstrate and the motivations and behaviors of others.

Kristin Neff speaks about the polarity of yin and yang. Yin is receptive and self-nurturing; it’s the kind of self-compassion that says Come here, let me hold you, I know this is really hard, it’s going to be okay. Go lie down and rest. And sometimes that’s exactly what we need.

If you become aware that you’re suffering, rather than being critical or judgmental or thinking you shouldn’t be having this experience, instead you can send yourself some compassion.

Here are two specific ways that you can do that.

To recap, the three elements of self-compassion are self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness. All three of these elements are present whenever we’re practicing self-compassion.

So, self-compassion is compassion that includes ourselves. It’s taking the same sense of care and kindness that we would show someone we really love and directing that toward ourselves.

There has been so much collective disappointment and uncertainty with things canceling and shutting down. But there has also been tremendous displays of compassion and generosity as people look out for one another in inspiring ways. It's another brilliant example of BOTH/AND, the paradox of this beautiful yet often brutal human experience we are sharing.

As soon as I developed a greater ability to be uncomfortable, the strategies I’d always used to keep the discomfort away could be dropped. I don’t need to protect myself from that anymore, because I have the ability to be with it. I developed a greater depth of connection to myself and other people—and to the reality of what’s happening around me. This is far more satisfying than my old strategy of just staying busy and focusing on what’s positive.

The purpose of the Enneagram is to expand your self-awareness and ability to self observe, especially those parts of yourself that have been in the shadow, your blind spots. It’s a place to begin. You might discover that you’re a particular type and it will open up a whole new world where you can dig around and learn new things about yourself that you haven’t seen before.

There’s not much that can fire me up like someone righteously stating how another person should simply pick themselves up by their bootstraps and make new choices to change their life.

I'm going to make an assumption here that you are a lot like me. Feel free to tell me if I'm wrong! Like me, you have days where you're firing on all cylinders, feeling confident and capable of handling just about anything. You're making moves, being brave and getting sh*t done.

And then, you have days …

We forget WHO WE ARE - our brilliance, our goodness, our enormous capacity and our beauty.

When we forget it's painful. We become anxious, lonely, guarded and afraid.

In these moments of forgetfulness we switch to auto-pilot and we rely on old coping strategies to survive. That's just how forgetting works and it happens to all of us. But, it's not exactly the most satisfying way to live 😝

So REMEMBERING is the name of the game 🎯