The Enneagram is awesome at helping you explore the polarity within your Enneagram type and how NOT to overdo it on your strengths.
The Enneagram is your own personal map of self-awareness, self-discovery, and self-liberation from your patterns of thinking, acting, and feeling that are NOT helping you…even when you think they are!
Let’s look at the Feeling Center Types: 2 , 3, and 4. FYI: the Enneagram divides the 9 types into 3 centers: the Action Center (Types 8 , 9, and 1), the Feeling Center (Types 2, 3, 4) and the Thinking Center (Types 5, 6, 7).
Type 2 The Considerate Helper: 2s are warm, generous, and will go out of their way to help you! With the motivational need to be liked and appreciated, they are empathetic and will likely put your needs in front of their own. However, even empathy and being considerate of others can become toxic! If left unchecked, 2s may “give to get” meaning if they don’t learn to say “no” and have boundaries, then their own needs will go unmet, which can lead to resentment when they don’t feel appreciated for all that they do.
Type 3 The Competitive Achiever: 3s are competitive, competent and charismatic. With the motivation to be the best and outshine the rest, 3s have the drive to set goals and achieve them. However, when their need to portray an image of success is too much, it can become crippling. They may be deceptive about their shortcomings, even to themselves. Masters at “doing”, it can be difficult for 3s to focus on “being” and to discover that true success is more than just achievement.
Type 4 The Intense Creative: 4s are intense, compassionate and expressive with their emotions and tend to be creative and deeply introspective about meaning and purpose. With the motivational need to be unique and authentic, they’re not afraid to explore all aspects of their emotions, both the light and dark sides. They love intense, meaningful relationships. However, when 4s search for meaning becomes excessive, it can lead to focusing on what’s missing instead of what’s there. This leads to consistent suffering and feeling stifled. This can perpetuate their lifelong struggle with taking pride in being different and misunderstood, yet frustrated that others don’t understand them.
See videos of panel interviews with the Feeling Center types below.
Next time we will focus on the Thinking Center types (5, 6, 7) and how their strengths in excess can turn into weaknesses.
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