A place for questions and reflections around the type six enneastyle.
These are the best practices offered during the webinar:
What a Six Can Do:
- Keep an image of an angel around. In the great wisdom traditions, the opening words of angels are always the same: “Be not afraid.”
- Keep a picture of yourself as a small child in a visible place. In times of stress, be willing to revisit the part of you that has survived these many years. Take consolation in your inner strength.
- To weaken the fear of authority, spend time reflecting on your own deepest, personal convictions. Which ones would you be willing to live/die for?
“Hi I am John McGreevey and I’ll be your Type Six mentor in this forum. I am a sometimes retired hospice doc from the midwest and occasional musician. I am also a graduate apprentice from the Anamcara Project. Please post any thoughts or questions on your Enneatype journey and I will be happy to respond and reflect.”
Hi John
I’m Dorothy. We’re you a facilitator at the Spirit of the Enneagram? If so, you might remember me. I had established a comfort and joy with being a six.
I’m good in a crisis, play lots of Sudoku, and pride myself on my courage rather than loyalty. Only now, I’m not so sure I’m a six. I could be a one.
I had one of those scattered childhoods where my mother died when I was young and I was raised by a variety of families. So I had good cause to fear and I worry a lot. So I learned to plan and develop the outcome.
While I’ve had my heat and trust broken I’m not overly hung up on loyalty. Yes, I value it, but it’s not my crown.
One big thing that makes me think I’m not a six, although I brag about having their strengths is that I’m not absorbed by the worry we are presently in.
I’m focused on finding the best way to deal with the situation and incredibly happy to have the freedom and resources I have to deal with it, I am not stuck in the “what if” phase. I’m confident that the how will come. If it doesn’t, then I guess we’ll have to deal with it then. After all, wether I’m a real or fake six I’m not bad in a crisis.
A big thing working with the enneagram and healing the healer I’ve lost a lot of the guilt I used to carry. I deeply relate to the feeling of shame but I don’t think I’m a two, which is what my daughter keeps suggesting, because care giving or looking for opportunities to give care are definitely not my skill set.
Hi Dorothy, yes we communicated in the other forum. Let me commend you on embracing your “sixness.” Sometimes I think people fall into focusing on the negative aspects of their Enneatype. Over time we learn that it all fits. I wondered about being a two for a time but the fact that I default to the head space was helpful for me. Here’s one event that helped. I was at work one day with a friend/coworker who is clearly a two (based on her own work.) One of our volunteers spilled something on herself. We both went to help but the difference was my friend was there instinctively and in a flash. In the split second before I responded I ran this internal dialogue about whether I should help, was it too forward, would I be in the way, etc. Right in the head space. I think shame shows up for sixes too but maybe in different ways. As far as the current situation and how we deal, we will see. Sixes are good in a crisis. I think we do better when the problem actually arrives then when we are anticipating all the things that might happen. It will unfold.