Enneagram: An Important tool for healing and spiritual ascension
A main reason why we don’t heal or feel good is because we don’t have enough free energy in our system, to do the healing and lift our spirit. It is a very basic fact that our habit of ‘holding of energy’ in fixed forms is what is bringing us down. There is plenty of energy in our body to lift us up but it is not available to us because we are keeping it locked into a fixed shape, which happens through our habitual and mostly unconscious ways of responding to life. We all have many different habits and beliefs, which are keeping our energy low. An important and imperative part of the self-healing and spiritual ascension process, is determining what those habitual energy drains are, and addressing each one by one, as one is ready to make a change in them.
Healing and spiritual ascension always occurs when one gains energy. There are many different ways to gain energy such as exercise, eating healthier, taking supplements or minerals, doing daily meditation, volunteering, artistic self-expression, energy healing techniques, getting a massage, fasting, organ cleanses, taking a bath, therapy, quitting smoking or drinking, writing, playing music, dancing, etc. But the largest amount of energy locked into a fixed shape, which has to do with ‘old habit’ is that being consumed by the animation of the structure of personality itself. It takes a lot of energy to run the machine of personality, and this if freed up could accelerate one’s spiritual growth and healing process.
This is why it is a good idea to use the enneagram tool, to find out what is your personality type. When you are armed with the information about your personality type, then you become aware of your habitual reaction pattern, and can notice when you are giving too much energy and attention to animating this ‘big energy drain’. When you have that information, then you can start to redirect energy away from strong animation of the personality, thereby raising your spirit and enhancing your healing on all levels.
Most people starting out on a healing and spiritual journey have little idea of the concept of personality even being activated. For the majority of people the antics of personality activation is invisible. To the beginner, there is no distance from the personality to be able to observe the personality in action. It seems like you are the personality itself, and there is no possibility to have control over it. For the advanced, when you are well into a healing and spiritual journey, eventually you will get to the point where your free energy is much higher. When you are not aware of your old habit to divert your attention and energy into activation of the personality, the personality activation when it happens will be much stronger than before and you will start to feel the heavy effect. This is happening now because you simply have much more free energy now, and you can now manifest a much stronger personality than before. It is imperative at this point, to dive into the inner workings of your animation of personality, and to get a handle on it, to start learning how to divert energy away from this old habit. Imperative, that is, if you want to feel better… It is an interesting state to be in, the misery of personality activation, gives you motivation to go to the next level, and uncover the more subtle deeper layers.
I feel the enneagram is a good complement tool for everybody on a healing and ascension path to use. Animation of our personality has to do with our belief about ourselves and how we view ourselves. This is tricky thing for us to uncover and discover about ourselves, because we currently feel we are as one with it. A tool like the enneagram helps us to identify our personality type, of which there are 9 basic forms. These 9 forms are the basic ways alive systems can respond and react to encountered happenings as a personal reaction, so they have a basis in natural systems. When we were very young, we all adopted a favorite way to respond to happenings, and so we all have a kind of hidden program, which is the root of our personality activation pattern. There are 3 basic ways we can respond ‘energetically’ to any happening: we can flee, fight or adapt. The other aspect is we each have a way to respond positively and negatively to any situation, our up side and our down side program, which is like two favorite emotions we use. We use the up side program when we are going into new territory, trying to do something new and different as our primary energy (charge ahead). We use the down side program when we feel we have failed (retreat), or as our secondary energy. When you take these 3 basic ways, and apply the upside/downside programming, then you have the 9 basic forms: flee/flee, flee/fight, flee/adapt, fight/fight, fight/flee, fight/adapt, adapt/adapt, adapt/flee and adapt/fight.
Adapt (chameleons) 2, 3, 4 : #2 adapt/fight, #3 adapt/adapt, #4 adapt/flee
Flee (escaping) 5, 6, 7: #5 flee/adapt, #6 flee/flee, #7 flee/fight
Fight (confronting) 8, 9, 1: #8 fight/flee, #9 fight/fight, #1 fight/adapt
The enneagram as a tool can pinpoint which personality type we are, arming us with self-knowledge of how we use emotional energy, and thereby giving us the ability to detect when personality animates. This is key information to know. The personality takes shape over the first 26 years of life. The core of the personality, the way we use emotional energy, was formed in the very early years before we had cognitive abilities. Because of this fact, the animation of personality is mostly invisible to us. This habitual way of responding to energy as reaction has been with us for so long, it just feels like it is us, and it feels like it’s hard-wired and unchangeable. But this is not the truth. Before we didn’t know about it, and used our energy this way unconsciously. With self-knowledge we have consciousness about it and with attention can change our old energy use pattern. This is the key. If we are not aware of our personality type and this activation process that’s currently invisible to us, then we will continue to feel an energy drain and eventually it will make us sick. By gaining this self-knowledge, then we are now aware of what is taking the energy by noticing when it happens, and then have the ability to make a decision to divert our attention and not use our energy any more in this old habit. Our spirit will rise up each time we are successful to divert our energy, giving us a new kind of confirmation to continue on in this way. Each time we are successful at this our spirit will grow stronger, and we will heal more.
To get started, there is a free online test you can do where the most important thing is to answer the questions truthfully. This is not about trying to be somebody else, or that anyone is going to judge you, even yourself! You don’t have to share your result with anybody. Bare and honest truth will give you the most accurate picture of yourself, and this is what you want and NEED to be able to see your animated aspect clearly, to gain the self-knowledge you need, so you can clearly SEE when you are using your energy in that old way.
There is a book on enneagram that I used in my study and found very beneficial. At the time it was available in tape format, I guess these days it’s on CD or DVD. It is by Helen Palmer, you can look into her website at the following link. I was quite impressed with her in-depth knowledge and intuitive take of the enneagram. She also gives excellent information on how to change your energy use patterns to actually evolve your personality type to the next higher type for you. There is a lot of free information on the site about the different types.
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