How your Enneagram Type Keeps You From Being Present

The Enneagram reveals more than just your core motivation; it points us to the specific, often unconscious, ways in which we live in states of perpetual distraction. The enneagram reveals our automatic habits of attention, and what we pay attention to determines what we miss. 

Our emotional intelligence profiles, well-being and, ultimately, our happiness requires that we recognize the habitual ways we remain distracted from our truest, most authentic selves. Explore the distraction pattern and path to presence for each Enneagram type below.

Type 1: 

Thinking about Deficiencies. Distracted by error, imperfection, and seeking peace through knowing what to fix. The mind is focused on what should be done or what is wrong.

Embrace "Good Enough." Allow for mistakes and imperfections. Presence & peace are found in acceptance, not correction.

Type 2: 

Others' Needs. Thinking about relationships and the emotional states of others. The focus is outward, knowing who to please in order to feel loved and wanted, while avoiding getting in touch with their own authentic needs.

Allow Other’s Needs to Go Unmet. Direct attention back to yourself and take inventory of your own emotions and needs. Say "No" to a request today. Presence is found in honest self-attunement.

Type 3: 

Feeling What Others Desire. Turning into what external success looks like from room to room at the expense of their own authentic desires. Adapting and projecting the right image and chasing the next accomplishment or replaying past achievements.

Feel What You Desire. Slow down & pay attention to your own emotions. What is truly going on inside you today?  Practice "non-doing" - sit without a device or a task for 15 minutes and just breathe softly. Presence is found in showing up to yourself, not in your accomplishments.

Type 4: 

What's Missing. Focusing on “important” work at the expense of daily tasks, demonstrating unique & special value, and idealizing a future that will finally give them what’s missing in order to feel "complete." 

Grounded in the Ordinary. Find beauty in the mundane daily routines of your life. Notice three ordinary things in your immediate environment that are important. Express gratitude for what is instead of what could be. Presence is found in no longer dreaming about wanting anything you believe you don’t have, and becoming rooted in the experience of now.

Type 5:

Resource Conservation & Preparation. Mental entanglements involving observations and the deconstruction of information to create emotional buffers in order to feel safe - withdrawing, researching, and mentally preparing - living life in the head.

Practice a Posture of Receptivity. Say ‘yes’ to unplanned requests without thinking about it. Consciously limit information intake and allow yourself to feel your feelings instead of thinking about your feelings.  Presence is found in embodied engagement.

Type 6: 

All Possible Risks. Worst-case scenario thinking and the need for certainty, spending vast amounts of time mentally preparing for threats that rarely materialize. Scaring yourself as a strategy for feeling safe.

Trust Yourself. Disrupt  your problem-seeking patterns with mindfulness practices. Remember that control is an illusion and you’ve made it here safely anyhow. Trust a gut feeling and act on it without second-guessing. Presence is found in the acceptance of uncertainty.

Type 7: 

All Possibilities. Distracted by future plans, exciting ideas, and the fear of missing out. Seeking mental, physical, and emotional stimulations while avoiding any limitations or boredom.

Sit Still. Choose one current mild discomfort (boredom, frustration, etc.) and sit with it for 5 minutes without escaping it. Execute only one of your plans at a time without moving on to the next thing. Embrace limitations as a means to richer experiences. Presence is found in experiencing the full breadth of your emotions and experiences. 

Type 8: 

Intensity & Control. Distracted by power, injustices, and acting quickly. Using intensity and opposition to cover feelings of vulnerability - attempting to replace a feeling of inner emptiness with excess. 

Lower Your Oppositional Energy. When you feel yourself powering-up, ask yourself what softer emotion is underneath and share with someone you trust.  Practice "softening" - relaxing your shoulders, jaw, and chest. Open yourself to opposing views without forming any counter-arguments. Presence is found in vulnerability.

Type 9: 

Merging & Numbing. Directing attention and activity to routines, low-priority tasks, daydreaming, or comfortably merging with others' agendas to satiate an internal desire for calm. 

Get Uncomfortable. Take at least one important action each day on your own behalf. Break your routines. Break the spell of inaction and connect to our anger. Scream if you need to. Presence is found in taking the right actions on behalf of yourself.