Enneagram Self Inquiry: First Reaction About My Type

Question a) What was your first reaction or response when you identified your Ennea-type(s)?  Why do you think you had this reaction - does it correlate to qualities of your type?

This is the one of the questions of final paper in “Enneagram Assessment” class.  I answered this question in the following way.

When I identified my Ennea-type as seven, my first reaction was as I expected.  In fact, since I was a university student, I have regarded myself as an enthusiastic man based on the feedback which people around me gave.  In retrospect, I call to mind about my behavior or attitudes in that I am a type seven. 

In fact, I always tended to keep my mind busy.  As Riso and Hudson (1999) point out, “as long as they can keep their minds occupied, especially with projects and positive ideas for the future, they can, to some extent, keep anxiety and negative feelings out of their conscious awareness” (p. 263).  As the above sentence explains, I was usually occupied with positive ideas or interesting future plans in order to let go of my negative feelings.  Actually, I sometimes didn’t concentrate on what I had to do now because of my busy mind.

Therefore, I looked for the way to keep my mind calm then I could find zen practice by chancer.  After I started to practice zen meditation, I became able to keep my mind relaxed little by little.  As Riso and Hudson (1999) recommend that Sevens practice meditation to feel the present moment, the meditation practice is so helpful for type seven, I think.  Thanks to zen meditation, now I can feel connected to the moment and enjoy fulfillment of everything around me.

Furthermore, my second highest score is type three and eight.  In other words, I’m not only an enthusiast but also an achiever and challenger.  I can recognize myself that I have strong desire to achieve something in my life and I really like to challenge something taking a risk.  That’s why I fully agreed with the result of the Enneagram test. 

More specifically, as Palmer (1995) indicates “Threes are naturally competitive.  They like to stretch their limit, to play full out, to compete with the best” (p. 89), I was really competitive and sometimes cried when I missed some games.  Even now, I hate defeat and I’m a true keener.  Thus, I think that I have a strong factor of type three.

In addition to type three, type eight has an influence on my type.  Especially, I usually avoid and dislike for someone controlling me as Eights.  In fact, Eights tend not to “want to be controlled or allow others to have power over them” (Riso & Hudson, 1999, p. 289).  Also, I sometimes don’t like working under someone who exert their authority over me. 

As discussed above, I totally agree with the idea that my personality type is comprised of type seven, three, and eight.

Reference

1 The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types

2 The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships

3 The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul