Lisa notes

How can you practice the Enneagram for spiritual growth? Discover 20 ways to use the Enneagram in this series. Don’t just learn about it; use it.

“When you learn about your type—the good and the bad—this knowledge can serve as your guardrail. It’s much easier to keep from falling off the edge of the road if your eyes are wide open and the path is lit.“
– Anne Bogel, Reading People

Daily Series on the Enneagram

The Enneagram (pronounced ANY-a-gram) is a personality typing system. It’s been gaining in popularity every year.

• But what exactly is the Enneagram?
• Is it compatible with religious beliefs?
• How do you find your Enneagram type/number?

And most importantly for this series:

• How can you use the Enneagram for spiritual growth, regardless of your faith?

Below is the index for 29 posts looking at different angles of the Enneagram and a different spiritual practice.

Take a deeper look into:

• How to identify your type
• Spiritual practices for each type
• Online resources
• Subtypes and wings
• Relationships between types
• Heart, head, and gut triads
• Stress and health directions
• and much more

Don’t just learn about the Enneagram. Use it to grow your healthiest self.

Enneagram Test

Learn more about and get links for Enneagram tests at #5, both free and paid. But if you want to take a test to get started now, here’s a link to the free version of the RHETI Enneagram test. It only takes a few minutes.

Just hold your results lightly. Most tests are not very accurate. But they can narrow down the possibilities for your number.

(Tip: If you’re a female in the United States, don’t be surprised if you score artificially high as a type 2, the Helper. Keep reading before you decide for sure.)

A better way to determine your number (but it takes more time) is to read descriptions of each type and see which fits you best. Here’s a short summary.

Index

1. Introduction (this page)
2. You Are a Masterpiece
3. 9 Enneagram Types with 9 Fears and Desires
4. 3 Ways to Find YOUR Enneagram Number + 9 Healing Attitudes to Accept It
5. 5 Enneagram Tests to Determine Your Type
6. Who Has Your Enneagram Number? Numbers of Famous People and People in the Bible
7. Where Did the Enneagram Come From? What Does the Symbol Mean?
8. Your First Impression of the Enneagram and Week 1 in Summary
9. A Hidden Gift in Each Enneagram Number
10. What Are Enneagram Wings? Your Invitation to Abundance
11. What Is My Enneagram Wing? Extra Names for Subtypes
12. Be a Healthy Number – Lines, Arrows, and Letting Go on the Enneagram
13. Favorite Books on the Enneagram
14. Podcasts, Music, and Other Resources on the Enneagram
15. On Your Mind Before Bed and Week 2 in Summary
16. You See Differently
17. Are You a Thinker, Feeler, or Doer? Triads & 3 Practices
18. What’s Your Connection Style? Prayer Practices for Each Enneagram Number
19. Is Your Social Style Annoying? 9 Ways We Manipulate Each Other
20. What’s Your Coping Style? Choose Your Response
21. 3 Survival Strategies – Subtypes of the Enneagram
22. Each Type on Their Day Off and Week 3 in Summary
23. The Most Important Thing About You
24. Shine a Light on 9 Ways We Lose Our Way
25. Which Enneagram Types Go Best Together?
26. Improve Your Relationships with Other Numbers on the Enneagram
27. A Wake-Up Call for Each Number on the Enneagram
28. Your Cheat Sheet: Summary for Enneagram Types
29. Don’t Make Me and Week 4 in Summary

What’s your Enneagram type? Do you have a favorite resource on the Enneagram? Please share in the comments.

Is Your Personality Limiting?

It’s not that I don’t want to.

It’s just that I can’t.

Do you ever feel that way?

We all have limitations. Some physical, some emotional, some mental. We can strength train and practice free throws and scrimmage with the best basketball players, but it’s highly unlikely any of us will ever play in the NBA, for instance.

Our personalities can feel like a limitation at times, too. As an introvert, I periodically need a break from people. I need to recharge in solitude, in time alone with God, if I want to function in optimal ways.

But does my personality lock me into a box?

Step Out of the Box

We’re different from each other. Every one of us. No two are exactly alike.

Some of our friends are homebodies. Some are constantly on the go. Some want their outsides to look perfect. Some want to go deeper instead.

There’s no perfect system for categorizing our circle of friends or ourselves. Nor would we want one.

But there are healthy ways to examine behaviors, motives, and spiritual paths. Specifically our own.

When we know ourselves better, we are more open to God at work in our lives. And we interact with more grace toward those around us.

Anne Bogel puts it this way in Reading People:

“Understanding our personalities makes it significantly easier to change the things within our grasp. . . . I’ve found that understanding my personality helps me step out of the box I’m trapped in. When I understand myself, I can get out of my own way.”

Learning to understand myself and others is one reason I like the Enneagram.

The Enneagram (pronounced ANY-a-gram) is one tool among many to open previously-closed windows to our souls. It allows space for the Holy Spirit to breathe fresh air into our relationships with God, with our loved ones, and with ourselves.

It unlocks the box and lets our personalities come home.

Daily Series on the Enneagram

If you want to learn more about yourself through the Enneagram, too, join me daily in February. We’ll examine twenty ways to practice the Enneagram for spiritual growth. (I’m participating with Anita Ojeda’s blogging challenge, #Write28Days.)

Whether you’re already familiar with the Enneagram or if this is your first time hearing about it, we’ll walk step-by-step through nine basic personality types, honing our understanding of ourselves, and preparing room for God to continue transforming us into his image of love and goodness.

I’m not a professional, but I will share what I’ve learned from the professionals and what I’ve seen and experienced. God can fill in the gaps. He designed each of us uniquely, so he knows best how to guide us.

The series will include:

• How to identify your type
• Spiritual practices for each type
• Online resources
• Subtypes and wings
• Relationships between types
• Heart, head, and gut triads
• Stress and health directions
• and much more

Our personality type doesn’t have to be a binding limitation. We can learn to work with it, not against it. It can be a gift, if we use it as God designed it for us.

“Learning to see ourselves for who we truly are is a gift of grace. The Enneagram helps us do just that.”
– Christopher Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram

Practice the Enneagram Together

Here are four ways to follow the Enneagram series. I hope you’ll add your comments, questions, and experiences along the way.

1. Sign up here to get the Enneagram series via email.
Each post comes to your inbox. (If you already subscribe to the blog, do nothing. It’ll come to you.)

2. Bookmark the index page. (not active until Saturday, February 1)
This link will take you to the index page for the series, beginning February 1.

3. Subscribe in your favorite news reader.
Feedly is my favorite. I do all my blog reading there.

4. Join me on Facebook.
I’ll link the daily post on my LisaNotes FB page.

* * *

What’s your Enneagram type? Do you have a favorite personality system—Myers-Briggs, five love languages, Keirsey Temperaments, DISC, etc.?  Please share in the comments.