Enneagram Self-Reflection: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?

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?

                          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 a lot of feedback which people around me gave.  In retrospect, I call to mind my behavior or attitudes in that I am a type seven. 

In fact, I always tended to keep my mind very 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 ideas and feelings.  Actually, I didn’t sometimes 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 was able to find zen meditation practice by chance.  After I started to practice zen meditation, I became able to keep my mind relaxed and serene 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.  In addition, zen meditation provides me not only a tranquil mind but also the opportunity to access true self.  Through zen meditation, I have been able to cultivate my spirituality and enjoy the present moment.  In regard to spiritual dimensions of type seven, Maitri (2000) comments that “The more we inquire into what it is that brings us joy through listening closely to our hearts, we will see that joy arises the more we are real and the more we face our truth, because this takes us one step closer to our depths (p. 239).  As a consequence, I noticed that my joy is not at the future but at the present.

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 in myself that I have a 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 when I was a kid.  Even now, I hate defeat, and I’m a truly emulous person.  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.  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 his or her authority over me.  As discussed above, I totally agree with the idea that my personality type is comprised of type seven, three, and eight.