Spirit of the Enneagram: Type Seven Forum

A place for questions and reflections around the type seven enneastyle.

What a Seven Can Do:

  • Take something that is a reminder of a difficult event or decision in your life and keep it out in view for a week. Allow yourself to recognize that life goes on and is enriched in spite of/because of the pain!
  • Make a list of all the projects you are currently involved with (or are planning for the future). Spend time prioritizing them.
  • Become more aware of the times you are tempted to put an unrealistic, Pollyanna-like spin on difficult situations.

Hello, I’m Gwen Yuill – SALC staff and social seven Enneatype. I’m proud to be your type seven moderator. I’ve studied the Enneagram for the last four years and found it to be enormously helpful with personal growth and interacting with family, friends, and co-workers. My favorite Enneagram author is Helen Palmer, even though her insights have been devastatingly revealing at times. Feel free to ask any questions or share insights on this forum. I will try to get back to you within a 24 hour period. Thanks for taking this journey with me!

8 Comments on “Spirit of the Enneagram: Type Seven Forum

  1. I’ll start with the week one challenge: My “seven” song is “Be OK” by Ingrid Michaelson. It talks about just wanting to feel like everything is okay, even though there is brokenness hidden inside. I love this artist and every time I hear this song I think about the seven idealization “I am okay.” I certainly find my self struggling with reality of everything not being okay. Not only do I want to be okay, but I also want all my tribe around me to be okay too.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpMI8Qu5fsc

    • The song that comes to mind for me is “Don’t Fence Me In.” I tend to feel very restricted within the confines of doctrines and dogma. It can sometimes feel suffocating to an open hearted universalism Christian. Sometimes, within theological doctrine, there is little room for creative spirit and mysticism.

  2. A question for fellow type sevens. I was just reading about the seven’s issues around not feeling like there is “enough” in their lives. What struggles do you have around the idea of having “enough”? In what areas do you excessively “accumulate” or “fill” to accommodate the sense of not having enough?

  3. My compulsion is to ensure I have enough choices….on my plate, in my wardrobe, on my calendar, in my job, etc. I thrive on variety.

    • Hi Leila, I find I have to have all the tabs I’m working with or interested in open on my computer. I can have up to twenty tabs going at one time. It pains me to close them. My husband, a one, can only have one tab at a time and can’t fathom how I can function with so many going at once. I just want to have enough choices! Do you have the same habit?

  4. I find with online stuff, I work hard to be disciplined and to stay on task because I am so easily distracted by other things. So I especially make sure I have social media windows closed. My husband who is an 8 can’t understand how I can have so many projects on the go at once instead of finishing one before starting another. I always say its because I need variety and I love to have choices. Lol.

    • Oh boy! I get the process of multiple projects. I always have several large projects and many, many small projects going. I’m always reading several books at once and the stack on my bedside table grows and grows if I’m not consciously trying to limit it.