Enneagram-Arrows show which way you go when relaxed and at your best.
Single Mothers can benefit from understanding personalities.
One of our themes on this blog is Personality Predicaments. You may have read in a previous post, Personality Predicaments Solved that you will begin with an awakening, then the work begins.
So many of life’s troubles could be eliminated if we just recognized that each of us is distinctly different and it is okay. Many of our disappointments,our anger and jealousies could be avoided by understanding personalities.
As I’ve studied this topic for many years I’ve found the Enneagram to have the most depth and be the most helpful. The goal is to not simply know your type but to transcend it. The Enneagram is a tool that can help you do this. It’s just a tool. “The core truth that the Enneagram conveys to us is that we are much more than our personality.” We are our essence, a God-given, God-breathed individual with unique qualities.
As stated by Helen Palmer in The Enneagram, Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life, “The teaching can help us to recognize our own type and how to cope with our issues; understand our work associates, lovers, family, and friends; and to appreciate the predisposition that each type has for higher human capacities such as empathy, omniscience, and love.”
I was trained by Sister Lois Dideon at The Centacle in Houston. My knowledge is very limited. I do know that it has been very helpful in identifying my motivations and shadowlands of my nature that I can learn from. Most personality profiles give us enough information to identify our general natures, the Enneagram shows us “how to observe and let go of troublesome habits and reactions and how to work with the motivations of each type” as Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson put it in The Wisdom of the Enneagram.
People have given different names to the nine points on the circle. It doesn’t matter the name. Should you choose to look into this you are in for a journey inward that will have an impact on your life outward.
Types according to Riso and Hudson
- The Reformer
- The Helper
- The Achiever
- The Individualist
- The Investigator
- The Loyalist
- The Enthusiast
- The Challenger
- The Peacemaker
Types according to Helen Palmer
- The Perfectionist
- The Giver
- The Performer
- The Tragic Romantic
- The Observer
- The Devil’s Advocate
- The Epicure
- The Boss
- The Mediator
Gail Cawley Showalter 
[…] posts: Find Your Strengths, Learn to be Self Aware, Know Yourself, Personalities Help the Family-a very brief […]
After spending to much time being ‘super mom, super employee, super go to’, etc…I found it very interesting to even think of me in the ways Gail and SMORE provide. In the beginning, thinking of me was very weird to say the least, deeper than I had ever gone before in ANY other topic–simply paying attention to myself from the inside! A million thanks SMORE and Gail for handing me a shovel to dig ‘me’ up to the surface.
It’s wonderful to know that we have helped, if even in a small way, Emily. Keep digging. 🙂