Body Awareness Practice for the Nine Personality Types

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Body awareness is an important part of working with our personality type, providing a way to manage our reactivity and achieve a grounded, embodied presence. It opens the door to the intelligence and resources of the Body and the Heart Centers of Intelligence, both of which are vital for making effective decisions, developing healthy relationships, and making progress on our own development.

Intrapersonal Awareness

All personality styles benefit from the ability to focus on the breath, to become more grounded and centered, and to access the relaxation response in moments of stress and pressure. Some patterns of stress go largely unnoticed; they are habitual, and body awareness practice can bring them to our attention so we can find ways to interrupt the pattern. At other times, stress is more obvious. In certain situations, we find our nervous system taken over by the fight, flight, or freeze response, and we need simple practices that we can use to calm ourselves in the moment – for example, deep breathing and a reassuring internal dialog.

Interpersonal Awareness

Our physical and emotional state impacts other people through our tone of voice and body language. This is most obvious in our speaking style. We communicate much more than just our words alone. The sound of our voice literally carries vibrations from inside our body directly to the bodies of others. Whether consciously or not, people are affected by our internal attitudes, feelings, and qualities of tension or relaxation. Body awareness practice brings this to our attention – that is, what we are communicating nonverbally to others and what they are communicating to us.

For each personality style, there are specific suggestions for body awareness practice that will help us to reduce our reactivity and increase our effectiveness in communication and relationship. According to the Enneagram, the nine styles have different profiles in terms of their biochemical responses and emotional habits. Equally important is how individuals of each Enneagram style avoid a specific feeling state that threatens their sense of well-being and security.

Before examining the nine styles individually, it is important to understand the general patterns present in the three Centers of Intelligence. The Enneagram describes three centers of energy and perception: Head, Heart, and Body. While we have all three centers, our personality style has a particular strength and "home base" in one of them. Understanding how we use our primary center is a key to knowing our style structure and our path of development.

The Body Center Styles: Eight, Nine, and One

Styles Eight, Nine and One have a gut sense of how things should proceed in ways that reflect their values of fairness (style Eight), harmony (style Nine), or correct order (style One). They want things to be done right. However, when people or events don't meet their expectations, the Body Center styles tend to take a position of being against how it is. Eights and Ones may get angry, while Nines may become stubborn. Even if they don't express their dissatisfaction directly, Body Center styles tend to become rigid and non-adaptable and, of course, other people sense this.

How can Body Center styles take a principled stance without communicating being against other people? How can they best mediate their anger or irritation? With practice, Eights, Nines, and Ones can notice the internal signals and physical sensations that reflect these reactions, while also reducing their nonverbal communication of anger or resistance. Of course, they can choose to be direct about their reactions, but what is important is that they make the conscious choice of how to respond.

The Heart Center Styles: Two, Three, and Four

Styles Two, Three and Four have a highly responsive limbic (relational) system. Of all the personality styles, they are the most tuned in to other people's needs (style Two), expectations (style Three), or emotional states (style Four). They are quick to adapt in the service of making their relationships work. However, along with reaching out for connection, there is also a quality of reaching for approval. Although appreciation is a basic human need, overemphasizing this can lead to a situation where self-worth is placed outside oneself, depending on other people's reactions – for example, feelings of self- inflation or deflation (style Two), feeling valued or unworthy (style Three), or feeling accepted or rejected (style Four).

Body awareness practice can help the three feeling styles become more centered internally by noticing the sensations of anxiety, embarrassment, or frustration that result from their efforts to obtain recognition and affirmation. This helps reduce the interpersonal pressure they place on themselves and others and bring balance to their use of empathic attunement and responsiveness in relationships.

The Head Center Styles: Five, Six, and Seven

Styles Five, Six and Seven are known for their intellectual perceptiveness and their innate abilities for deep analysis (style Five), planning and problem solving (style Six), and creative thinking (style Seven). At the same time, it's the strength of the Head Center itself that can create an imbalance within them. Under stress, the three Head Center styles tend to withdraw their energy and attention from their bodies and their emotions. This may simply be a result of their reliance on thinking as a way to sort things out. However, it can also serve as a defense against feeling fear, the core emotion that drives or underlies the three styles formed in the Head Center, who are particularly sensitive to the possibility of intrusion, danger, or limitation in their environments.   

Head Center styles can use their self-awareness to bring attention to the body and the breath. This opens up access to additional information and resources because the body has its own intelligence and common sense and it provide a kind of security that cannot be found by thinking alone. Being physically grounded also helps Fives, Sixes, and Sevens connect with and respond to their emotions.

The Nine Personality Types

Enneagram Style One: The pressure to be correct and get it right

Ones want to get things right and they work very hard towards this goal. Although the common One label "Perfectionist" reflects this, it's not that everything has to be perfect. Because they are realists, Ones know that everything can’t be perfect. At the same time, just about everything counts or matters to Ones! As a result, the big challenge for them is to be able to discern what really is important and how much effort to apply, since they tend to overexert themselves in the name of correctness.

An important element in the style structure, familiar not only to Ones but also their friends and colleagues, is the presence of a strong internal critic. Ones have an innate quality of critical thinking, as well as a particular talent for organization and structure. They sense how things both can and should fit into a proper order. The problem is the tendency to see things in absolutes: right or wrong, black or white. This can lead to rigid and non-adaptable behavior that can, in turn, alienate other people. At the same time, Ones are actually the hardest on themselves and suffer from judging themselves harshly.

How is it possible to differentiate between critical thinking and excessive judgment? The answer is found by tuning into the emotional zone and tone. There is a big difference between a critical or discerning voice that is friendly and supportive and one that is hostile and damaging to one's sense of wellbeing and self-worth.

Differentiating between the two can be especially difficult for Ones because their emotional habit is anger, and anger is also their shadow issue. Ones naturally become angry, and like the Eights – although different events and issues trigger Ones and Eights – Ones can find many things in themselves, in others, and in the environment that fuel their anger. Things just aren't the way they should be! However, unlike Eights, Ones believe that getting angry directly is not the right thing to do. As a result, Ones try to turn their anger into constructive action – that is, determine what’s wrong then improve it. Making things better is their noble goal, but their anger, usually in the form of irritability and resentment, are apparent in their nonverbal communication. Further, taking on the burden of rightness quickly leads Ones to a position of righteousness.

Certain body awareness practices help Ones move from Anger to the higher emotional state of Serenity, a quality of open-heartedness while striving to do one's best: to change what can be changed, accept what can't, and have the wisdom to know the difference.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

More than other personality styles, your body responds to anything that seems out of order or out of integrity. This is valuable information. Your challenge is to prevent this from creating internal physical tension and rigidity. By tuning into your body on a regular basis, you will learn to recognize these reactions as soon as they begin. When do your jaw or shoulders tighten up? When are you holding your breath? By noticing these patterns, you can take steps to let the tension ease. Practice deep and steady breathing to help relax your system. Spread your physical energy around your body rather than have it accumulate and tighten or contract in certain areas. Find the pleasure in your physical vitality and aliveness.

It's crucial that you acknowledge and accept your feelings of anger when they arise. The most obvious warning signals are feelings of irritation or resentment. What are the physical sensations that signal these feelings? Rather than letting anger fuel your tension and ignite the inner critic, you can manage your anger internally through relaxation practice. Sometimes it's possible to simply let your anger pass through; acknowledge it to yourself and let it go. At other times, you will need to communicate your anger directly. When you are grounded, in touch with yourself, and breathing fully, it will be easier to moderate your anger as is appropriate to each situation.

Resentment is also a clue that you are angry and overexerting yourself. You will be far more effective in the long run if you balance your hard work by taking breaks (even short ones) and by asking people for help. You don't have to do it all at once or all by yourself!

Your hard work to produce the best results is admirable, but there is a danger that you may be neglecting your emotional life in the process. Your feelings are important. If you don't pay attention, you will miss out on the rich experiences that are only available through the Heart Center and your contact, both with yourself and with other people, will lack depth. Take the time to get in touch with your feelings using your deep and fluid breath to open up space inside. This may feel scary or confusing at first, but continued practice and self-acceptance will eventually lead you to serenity, which is feeling the presence of goodness in an imperfect world.

Enneagram Style Two: The need to help, attract, and win approval

Twos look for connection with others, and they have abundant emotional intelligence to bring to their relationships. Naturally empathetic, it's part of their temperament, and they easily tune into what other people feel and need. However, Twos are not nearly as adept at knowing their own feelings and needs. Their attention automatically moves out to other people rather than to themselves and what they are experiencing internally. Body awareness practice is a key to making this inward turn. 

Twos move towards people to help and support them. This reflects both their caring spirit and a desire to earn recognition and approval. Twos, along with Threes, become dependent on continual positive feedback in order to feel good about themselves. When this affirmation is not provided, Twos have trouble knowing or believing in their own worth.  

The emotional habit for Twos is pride. This is not the healthy self-esteem but rather a feeling of self-inflation or self-devaluation based on whether external approval and recognition is forthcoming from those people who are seen as important. This is the downside of the Twos' responsiveness in relationships, representing a particular vulnerability to the opinion of others. By learning to tune in to their own feelings and sensations and becoming internally grounded, Twos can then establish a firm internal stability that allows them to become the source of their own value, rather than relying on the responses of others for their sense of self-worth.

The Twos’ shadow issue is their inability to communicate clearly and directly about their own needs. They easily get stuck in the role of giving while not receiving. Many Twos report that having needs elicits feelings of guilt or embarrassment, and sharing these directly with others is doubly difficult. In addition, for female Twos, family and culture reinforces their role as helpers who do not express their own needs, but who do take care of others.

At the same time, other people often experience Twos as needing something; it's just not clear exactly what the need is. From their perspective, Twos are bewildered when their friends, partners, and colleagues aren’t sufficiently emphatic to know what the Two needs. Twos do this for us; why can't we do the same for them? The problem is that most people just don't have this level of emphatic ability, although we can develop it with practice.

If Twos are to get their needs met, they need to learn to express these more directly and ask for assistance. But, how are Twos to do this? Body awareness practices bring Twos inside themselves, helping them focus on their own feelings and sensations. By anchoring their attention in their physical sensations, their own breathing, and with their feet on the floor, Twos gain a partial or temporary separation from others. This literally allows them more breathing space from which they can then become more attuned to themselves.

Certain body awareness practices help Twos move from Pride in helping others (but not themselves!) to the higher emotional state of Humility, which means knowing one's own intrinsic value and neither inflating or devaluing one’s self-worth based on the responses of others, and being true to oneself while maintaining compassion towards others.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

As a Two, your task is to go inside to notice your own sensation, feelings, and needs. At first, you will find it easier when you are alone. Your attention will not be so quickly pulled outside yourself, although you will still need to put thoughts of other people aside temporarily. Keep returning to your own physical sensations. What's happening in your body? Where do you feel good, where constricted? Being aware of your body and your breath keeps you centered internally and opens up room for identifying and sorting your emotions.

In this process, you may discover that you have internalized the feelings, attitudes, and physical states of others who are important to you or who have impacted you. It's important to review and discern what is truly yours and what belongs to other people. Keeping your attention on your breath and your physical sensations will gradually help you clear your internal space. You can summon your assertiveness: This feeling or mood is not mine, and I don’t want to carry it around in my body!

With continued body awareness practice, you will be able to stay in touch with yourself even when you are in the presence of other people. You will have better boundaries. Your body will tell you in the moment how you are being affected, how you are responding, and what you need to do in order to take care of yourself. Pay particular attention to anxiety; anxiety is an important signal that something is amiss. Perhaps you have lost your center through needing approval, or perhaps you don't like something about another person's behavior. Feelings of entitlement or resentment are also useful indicators. Are you overextending yourself, doing too much and not getting enough back?

When you are trying to attract or connect with someone who is important to you, pay attention to how you change your presentation - your body language, tone of voice – as well as your tendency to be overly nice. When you are centered internally, you will be less dependent and more authentic. You will still be affected by people's emotional states and their response to you, but it won't replace your own internal experience. You have an important resource inside – the vitality of your own life force – that does not depend on anyone else.

Enneagram Style Three: The rush of forward momentum to get things done

Threes have a great deal of kinetic energy; they just want to be in action and get things done. For Threes, a goal becomes an irresistible object, propelling them forward toward achievement and success. In work cultures that reward Threes for their ability to work hard and produce results, there’s little support for slowing down and smelling the roses. With a keen attunement to other people's expectations, at least the expectations related to success, the Three’s attention is constantly drawn outward to the next goal, the next plan, and the next set of tasks. Body awareness practice enables Threes to bring their attention inside to their own feelings and physical wellbeing. It also helps to clarify their true priorities and to balance their task-focused activity with self-care.

Like Twos, Threes have the quality of emotional intelligence that is interpersonal. They excel at adapting their self-presentation and interpersonal style in order to make connections with different groups of people and to create an image that brings positive recognition. As with all the personality styles, the Three’s inherent strengths can lead to serious blind spots. Too much emphasis on creating a winning image prevents Threes from knowing themselves at a deeper level. The drive for success can lead to exhaustion through overwork. 

The emotional habit for Threes is that of leaving their personal feelings behind while stepping into a role, rather than being authentically themselves (also called deceit). Roles can change depending on what is expected of them as well as what they expect of themselves, and Threes often feel an unrelenting, internal pressure to be successful all the time. Because they tend to be efficient and effective, others keep giving them more work, and Threes have a hard time saying no to this. However, as Threes mature and start to question their reliance on roles, they often discover feelings of sadness about having had to earn love by performing, rather than simply being appreciated for who they are.  

The shadow issue for Threes is a fear of failure. No one likes to fail, but the fear of failure elicits even greater anxiety in Threes; it deeply threatens their sense of self-worth. With the avoidance of failure continuously operating in the background, Threes feel continual pressure to succeed. But how much achievement is enough? When does it end? It's important for Threes to bring this pervasive need to succeed to the surface and then examine its impact on their decisions, actions, and wellbeing. Otherwise, it prevents them from feeling (the well deserved) satisfaction in their achievements and keeps Threes on a continuous treadmill.

Body awareness practice gives Threes the ability to shift their internal pace by slowing down and tuning in, and it reduces the pressure or anxiety, thus helping them balance activity and rest and allowing them to open up space in their Heart Center. These body awareness practices help Threes move from the emotional pattern of Deceit to the higher emotional state of Truthfulness – knowing one's authentic self and being willing to share this with others.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

It's a great gift to have so much energy and enthusiasm for the activity of life. But the "high" of being in action can become habitual, even addictive. Your challenge is to learn to shift gears internally. When you feel the rush of forward momentum, pause for a few moments. How much effort is right for the situation at hand? How much effort is right for you? By noticing your internal pace, you can slow down or speed up, as necessary.

When you become impatient or angry with other people for being too slow or inefficient, take a few deep breaths before communicating this. Or, simply stay calm, say nothing, and trust that others will do what they need to do, although they will do it differently from the way you would. Remember the bigger picture – the bigger goal – and recognize the importance of preserving relationships with those you depend on.

As a Three, you tend to take on other people's expectations about what you should do – for example, what work projects to take and what leadership responsibilities you should assume. This becomes a serious issue because your overall competence encourages people to continually bring you more tasks and responsibilities. However, you need to practice checking in with yourself first. How do you feel about this? What does your body tell you? Even if you are ready to take on the job, you may want to adjust the timeline or ask for additional resources. If you simply move to action without sensing what you want and knowing how you feel, the workaholic cycle will continue.

Because it’s not that common for you to feel discouraged or overwhelmed, when you do react this way, pay close attention. These important signals will surface at times – if you let them – and indicate that you are overextended and that you need to review or renegotiate your priorities. Success does not mean burning out.

Although your adaptability is a strength, the pressure you put on yourself to maintain a positive image can exhaust and distance you from your true feelings. Notice when you begin to shift your self-presentation to be agreeable to your audience, and stay attuned to yourself internally on a continuous basis by sensing your physical reactions and paying attention to your breath. These are the gateways that enable you access all of yourself, and your leadership and relationships will improve as you develop the quality of embodied presence.

Enneagram Style Four: The wave of longing for what's missing

Fours want to find personal meaning and depth in their work and relationships. They are romantic idealists who strive for personal creativity, authentic relationships, and a connection to a greater wholeness. They are on a quest for life.

Like Twos, Fours are inherently empathetic to other people's needs and feelings. Like Threes, they want to perform well and earn recognition in the eyes of others. But unlike the other two feeling styles, Fours are pulled to their interior world where their strong emotions serve as a guide to what is important. This leads to ongoing tension between meeting the needs and expectations of others while staying true to themselves.

Everyone has feelings, but Fours live with more and bigger feelings than other people and experience this daily. Fours describe their inner experience as riding waves of emotion, like being in a small boat on the ocean with big waves carrying them in multiple and often opposing directions. The challenge for Fours is to keep a firm grip on the rudder and steer the boat in the right direction. Fortunately, they are experienced deep-water sailors, but body awareness practice can help them stay on course.

The emotional habit for Fours is the feeling of longing for what is missing and continuously comparing themselves or their lives to someone or something else. This subtle or blatant comparison (also known as envy) may appear intensely in certain situations, and it also operates as a chronic emotional tone in the background. As idealists, they make comparisons between how things are and how they want them to be. Their sense of loss at the lack of wholeness and deep connection engenders sadness and melancholy. Fours usually find these feelings authentic and valuable. The danger is getting stuck there and becoming de-motivated when people or activities don't measure up to their expectations.

The shadow issue for Fours is ordinariness. Not only do Fours find ordinary life lacking in substance, they turn the same critical eye on themselves. Being ordinary means being deficient. This generates intense, internal pressure to be authentic and to be recognized by others as special and unique with regard to creativity, personal style, and depth of feeling. But even if this recognition is forthcoming, it does not entirely overcome the fear of being internally deficient. Having good self-esteem requires a deeper self-acceptance.  

Body awareness practice supports Fours in being grounded and centered even during stormy emotional weather. The vitality of the life force brings a quality of goodness that balances the tendency toward melancholy. This moves Fours from constantly comparing themselves to others through Envy to the higher emotional state of Equanimity, the welcoming all feelings without becoming attached to them, thus letting them pass through. And it means keeping an open heart, especially towards oneself, while staying on course.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

If you are a Four, your task is to learn how to go with the flow of emotions without losing your center. Because each feeling has a physical component, it is important to recognize the physical sensations that go with your feelings. Notice when feelings are accompanied by tightness in your breath or a withdrawal of energy from your face, voice, hands, and/or feet. Practice circulating your breath and your energy by sending both to your entire body, rather than containing it in only one part. Physical exercise such as walking enables your breath and energy to circulate more easily, although you can also do it while sitting in a chair. 

When you do the exercise above, you will find a place of emotional stability through being physically grounded. This doesn't always mean being calm, but rather having the resource of your energy and breath available at all times to help balance your emotions and hold them in a larger space. It reduces the extent of mood swings.

In particular, notice the onset of the feeling of disappointment, when there is a sudden letdown, when something feels incomplete, or when you feel deficient. This can be triggered by anything that seems missing in work, events, your relationships, or in yourself. Without self-awareness, this feeling can lead you to suddenly withdraw or lose interest in a relationship or a project that previously held value (and likely still does).

Of all the Enneagram styles, you have the strongest receptive feeling function. Through empathy that stems from the Heart Center, you take things inside yourself: beauty, music, and satisfaction from a fulfilling experience. This sensitivity can also lead you to internalize other people's emotions and opinions, and doing so is not always the best thing for you. Notice the discomfort or mood shifts when you are absorbing something that is not yours; this tells you that you need to create a boundary. Use awareness practice to discern what is actually yours from what is not. Feel the circulation of energy down into your belly or stomach area (the Body Center) and into your feet. This will create some separation between you and others while still allowing you to maintain contact.

Breathing deeply and sensing your body also protects you from being invaded by people or external events and means you don’t have to push back so hard to re-establish your own space. Being centered allows you to find the source of self-esteem inside yourself. You will be less anxious and less dependent on the acceptance and rejection of other people.

Enneagram Style Five: The sudden or overwhelming urge to withdraw

Fives are seekers of knowledge, and they find ideas and systems compelling both for their intrinsic value and as a way to create order and safety in a world that seems intrusive and demanding. While Fives make huge contributions intellectually, their Body Center and the Heart Center energy is far less activated. In fact, their thinking function is so strong that their attention is primarily pulled upwards, away from the Heart and Body Centers of Intelligence.

Fives prefer to take the role of observer, which allows for uninterrupted thinking and careful consideration of the matter at hand. This leads to a style of personal detachment, which is great for staying focused on priorities, creating strategies, and keeping calm in a crisis. It's not as effective when it distances Fives from their own emotions or other people. Body awareness practice will open up the channels to information and intelligence that is available in the heart and body and lead Fives to greater effectiveness in decisions, communication, and relationships.

The emotional habit for Fives is withdrawal or pulling back to conserve their time, energy, and resources, sometimes referred to as avarice. Other people seem intrusive; the world demands too much. In part, this arises from their basic physiology. Fives have an inherently sensitive nervous system that can get overloaded by too much stimuli and too much contact with others. When this occurs, Fives can feel overwhelmed and this is frightening. Their protective reaction is then to retreat into their intellect or to place of privacy. Being detached and self-sufficient is more attractive than being overwhelmed and dependent on others.

The shadow issue for Fives is isolation. Fives need plenty of private space to relax, review, and recharge their batteries. The question is how much is right. When does being alone reflect an authentic need that, when satisfied, returns them to contact and participation, and when does it simply become a place to hide? Even when they are around other people, Fives can avoid personal contact and isolate themselves by retreating into their minds. Over time, however, this distancing leads to a feeling of inner emptiness.

Learning to stay in touch with feelings and sensations in the body guides Fives as they balance their needs for contact and privacy. Instead of feeling empty inside, Fives are better able to stay connected to people and to the vitality of the life force itself. 

Certain body awareness practices help Fives move from Avarice – detachment in order to guard and protect themselves – to the higher emotional state of Non-attachment, which is different in subtle but important ways from detachment. Non-attachment is a state of being open to both giving and receiving with no need to hold on or hold back from fear of scarcity.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

As a Five, your task is to develop your complete sense of your physical body and aliveness. Being grounded in your body will increase your feeling of security and help prevent your feeling overwhelmed. Make it a regular practice to breath deeply and sense your body at least several times a day. This will help you be more aware of the times when you "leave" your body, and if you do vacate your body by going into your mind, the path back will be clearer and faster. 

Notice when you feel a sudden urge to withdraw from people, and bring your attention to what is happening internally. This will create choices for you. You may be able to deepen your breathing and calm yourself on the spot. You can bring your attention to your physical sensations such as feeling your feet in contact with the floor. Having more space inside will help you weather external events that were previously unsettling or alarming. If you do withdraw, remember that people are affected by your leaving. You can mediate the impact by letting them know you appreciate the contact you’ve already had and/or that you will reengage another time. Sometimes even a short break will allow you to reset your nervous system.

A key signal for your body awareness practice is shallow breathing. You can get by on little breath, but doing this so habitually will de-energize you; you won't feel much of anything. Breathing more deeply increases your energy and your capacity to engage life with your Heart and Body Centers. When you are in contact with your own aliveness, you can practice extending your warmth towards others. If you can't feel or do this at first, visualize it as light or color moving out from your heart and body to others.

Knowing your feelings will also help you know what you need from others. Practice speaking directly to others about your needs. You may feel uncomfortable asking people for their time or support, or you may hesitate out of respect for their privacy and yours. Breathing practice will help you get through this discomfort until it becomes much easier. In addition, it is important for you to communicate your boundaries. When a clear external boundary is clearly communicated to others, you won't need to withdraw into your head. Saying no makes it more possible to say yes.

Enneagram Style Six: The takeover of worry and doubt

Sixes are full of contradictions. They can be doubtful and skeptical, yet loyal and committed with regard to the same person or project. Some Sixes hold back out of caution while others charge ahead; some Sixes do both, depending on circumstances. As a mental style, Sixes seek to understand things intellectually. They want to be able to figure out what’s happening around them, decide on whom they can rely, and make action plans that minimize risk and/or prepare them for multiple contingencies. Body awareness practice opens up the intelligence of the Body Center and helps Sixes balance their mental energy with practical common sense.

One thing that Sixes have in common is a keen eye for anticipating problems. They want to know the worst – what can go wrong – so they can prepare themselves in advance and find solutions. This does not necessarily mean they are pessimistic, but rather that they want to ensure a positive outcome. However, their constant scanning of the environment is difficult to turn off and can lead to exhaustion. Sixes have a very sensitive internal alarm system that serves their own sense of safety but also puts them in the role of guardian for the safety of the group. Their challenge is learning to calm their nervous system and to relax after danger has passed instead of staying on high alert for longer than necessary or longer than is healthy for them. 

The emotional habit for Sixes is fear, and at times, an aggressive response that is mobilized by fear. Both of these responses – fear and aggression – play a vital role for survival. However, Sixes can get stuck here. Although the fear they experience and amplify is generated internally, they find an external source – for example, a person or event – that justifies their feelings. In seeking danger externally, there is always some evidence, a reason for suspicion or distrust, to be found. Counter-phobic Sixes may be unaware that their behavior is fear-based, but their aggression – movement toward and against something – often stems from this internal motivation.

The shadow issue for Sixes is rejection, but it's not that they need constant approval; in fact, Sixes prefer to have difficulties and disagreements out in the open. It's rather that they feel threatened by having someone break the connection or refuse to relate to them. Who knows what will happen then? What can they do to change this? Although Sixes depend on constancy and predictability to feel secure, the paradox is that Sixes push people away with their anxiety or suspiciousness. In fact, Sixes can be interpersonally abrasive without realizing the impact of their behavior.

Body awareness practice gives Sixes the ability to move from the emotional pattern of Fear to the higher emotional state of Courage, which is not bravado but the willingness to face fear and move forward into action while keeping an open heart. These practices help keep Sixes tuned into their feelings and the messages they are sending. Over time, they can learn to manage their internal alarm system, assess danger more accurately, and reduce the habitual response of fear and aggression. Being grounded in the body creates more security on the inside.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

As a Six, your task is to learn to notice the onset of worry and how it affects your physiology. You may experience a constriction of the breath and a loss of contact with your body. An important signal is the tightening of your diaphragm. This can happen in a specific situation or it can be a chronic holding pattern. It creates discomfort for you and for the people around you, who often sense your feelings of pressure, anxiety, or panic. 

Can you go underneath the tension and inquire about its source? If you are feeling fear or apprehension, what is the best way to take care of yourself? Deep breathing will help calm you; sensing your body will ground you in the moment and reduce your worst-case thinking. Humor is also very helpful since laughing loosens the diaphragm.

It's not easy to welcome the feeling of fear in the body. However, accepting and then relaxing into the physical sensations helps these reactions move through you rather than be held and solidified within you through continual contraction and tension. As you let these reactions move through you by allowing yourself to feel them, you may experience mild shaking or vibration. If you can tolerate this, it will pass!

Your sensitivity to threats or potential problems provides good information, but it doesn't have to dictate your behavior. By pausing, breathing, and finding your internal center, you will be more effective in meeting any challenge. Because your fear can lead to aggressive reactions and a need to control your environment in order to feel safe, if you bring your attention inside and down into your body, you will be more grounded and better able to identify your internal emotions and reactions. Feeling safer on the inside will reduce your tendency to make negative projections onto other people or future events. Being embodied will help you claim your own authority. As a result, you will be able to choose how you react rather than behave out of reactivity. 

With a body practice of sensing your body and breathing fully, you will access the relaxation response, and with continued practice, you will open up the resources of your body and instincts. The vitality of the life force will be there to support you at all times.

Enneagram Style Seven: The flight into new ideas, plans, and possibilities

Sevens are a Head Center style with the quality of the expanded mind. They explore new ideas, new connections, and the possibilities for fun activities. They are generalists with wide-ranging interests. Moving as quickly as they do creates breadth of experience but not necessarily depth. The challenge for Sevens is to focus their attention rather than have it disperse in many directions. Body awareness practice helps bring Sevens into the moment and stay focused on the task at hand. 

With their agile minds, Sevens are quick to find solutions to problems, change directions, and invent new plans. However, they tend to overuse this strength. Some issues can't be solved or addressed by thinking alone, but Sevens tend to over-rely on their thinking function and rationalize that everything is okay, even when it is not. When people or events stubbornly resist fulfilling their positive expectations, Sevens may feel fear and apprehension, usually in the form of anxiety. Tuning into these feelings and what lessons can be learned from them is a key issue for the Seven’s development.

Sevens have a great capacity for enjoying life, both the life of the mind and the life of physical adventure, although extreme physical experiences are not the same as body awareness. Like Eights, many Sevens thrive on intense sensation and excitement in the body. The question is: How much is enough? And is it really productive for them? It can be difficult for many Sevens to slow their pace, calm down, and find enjoyment in moderation. They just want to keep on going.

The emotional habit for Sevens is the desire for more excitement, pleasure, and whatever interests them and the feeling of frustration with any type of limitation. The Enneagram term for this is gluttony, but this is not necessarily about food. It's the chronic feeling that the present moment is not enough combined with a craving for more and more stimulation. If something is good, then more is better. The appetite for pleasurable experience easily turns into a feeling of entitlement. Sevens now feel they deserve to have everything they want. If other people or situations try to impose limits, they become angry.

The shadow issue for Sevens is the feeling pain and suffering. Why feel bad when there are so many interesting and fun things to do? The problem is that by avoiding pain or sadness, Sevens become cut off from their deeper experience. Ironically, this limits Sevens from living fully. Life is lived on the surface or only in the mind where positive thinking serves as a defense. Relationships suffer from a lack of empathy as Sevens try to keep everything cheerful. Decision making becomes impaired by not fully perceiving problems and obstacles.   

Body awareness practice is a path for Sevens to bring their attention to their internal experience and to develop the capacity for deeper emotions and receptivity. It balances the centrifugal force that spins their energy outward. These practices shift Sevens from the emotional pattern of Gluttony to the higher emotional state of Sobriety, which is not only about drugs and alcohol. It means letting go of many kinds of inebriation that creates a disconnection from the inner self, other people, and the full reality of the external world. 

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

As a Seven, your task is to get out of your head and into your body and emotions. This means coming down from the high of all the wonderful ideas and possibilities, at least for a time. The key is breathing deeply into the belly area and feeling both your lower body and your feet on the floor. This will balance your mental energy and make you more grounded. The intelligence of the body center offers both common sense and stability, and it will prevent you from flights into your imagination when practical action is required.

You may find it useful to visualize energy or light moving to your Heart Center and to your Body Center. Imagine sending roots from your feet down into the earth. Physical exercise helps being grounded, especially slower practices such as yoga and tai chi.

Each of us has some kind of sensing function in the body that lets us know how much of something is right for us. By tuning in and listening to your body, you will notice when you are becoming "intoxicated" through planning, talking, consuming, spending or any other activity. You'll know when to stop and when to take a break. Moderation has major benefits in the long term for both your physical health and psychological well-being.

Pay attention to feelings of anxiety that arise when you are facing some kind of limitation. If you breath into this and tolerate the discomfort, you will be better able to stay more focused and on track. When you find that your attention has taken flight, keep coming back to the present moment.

Being in a physical body means experiencing limitation, and being in the Heart Center may involve feelings of pain or sadness. Notice your reaction to these feelings. If you feel overwhelmed, keep breathing and find your center in your belly area, the place where the life force is available for support and reassurance.

By integrating pain and joy, fun and discomfort, you will open up the capacities of the heart and body to a much greater depth. This creates possibilities for experiencing life beyond the pleasures of the mind.

Enneagram Style Eight: The surge of energy to take charge or confront

Eights prefer to operate from a position of strength, and they can mobilize their energy very quickly when needed. On one hand, this is admirable! On the other hand, it can become just too much for other people and even, over time, too much for the Eights themselves. They can exhaust themselves by overdoing things.

The emotional habit of Eights is excess. This is the feeling of wanting more in every situation and using too much forcefulness to get what they want. The desire for everything is often accompanied by anger. Eights are quick to anger – for example at limitations, injustice, and people moving too slowly. They do not back down from opposition or conflict; rather, they embrace the challenge. And what's wrong with meeting life with enthusiasm, having a great argument, or fighting the good fight? The danger is that Eights can become dependent on their anger and confrontational approach as a source of internal motivation.

A hidden issue for Eights is their own internal inertia. It's hard to shift attention or initiate activity gently, so they tend to build up a big head of steam in order to get moving. It's easier to "move against" things than to move from a place of internal calm. 

The shadow emotional state for Eights is vulnerability. While Eights seem pretty tough on the outside, they do get their feelings hurt. But it's hard to stay with this feeling of hurt and vulnerability; instead, they rely on attacking (defending) to ward off further injury. Although this is primarily unconscious, Eights use a position of strength to ward off receptivity. Better to be assertive and to provide and protect than to be on the receiving end of things. Without cultivating emotional sensitivity and being receptive to others, Eights miss out on much of what life has to offer. Figuratively speaking, it's as though they can only hear loud music and miss the nuance and pleasure of the softer tones and phrases.

However, when Eights can stay with their vulnerability and receptivity, they open up a much greater range of choice and flexibility. You don't have to charge forward in every situation! And people, over time, will come to appreciate this quality and learn how to care for Eights. This supports a mutuality in relationships that is not possible when Eights are always the "strong" ones. It moves Eights from their emotional pattern of excessiveness or Lust and opens the door to the higher emotional state of Innocence, the quality of open-heartedness without cynicism or self-armoring.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

Learn to notice the surge of energy that moves you forward into action or into direct, even frontal, contact with others and work projects. You can ask yourself this question: How much assertion is necessary and useful in this situation? The answer will vary – sometimes less, sometimes more. A short pause opens up the space to check in with yourself and gives you the choice to moderate your response. You don't need to suppress yourself! You can send part of your energy down toward the ground or circulate it around inside your body, while being graceful with respect to how much energy you send toward other people.

Regularly tuning into your body will let you know when you are "revving up." This may be an indication of excess. Practice deep, slow breathing in order to calm your system. There are many times when a calm approach will produce better results (even if it takes longer), and in any event, it will be healthier for you in the long run.

A second set of signals can let you know when you are feeling vulnerable and, with practice, you will learn the subtleties of this internal experience. It is the sensation of discomfort or tension that is often missed as you power up to meet a perceived threat. Mobilizing your energy to meet a challenge masks the more subtle cues of apprehension and uneasiness that, in turn, masks feelings of vulnerability. At first, it will feel counter-instinctual to stay with your vulnerability in the face of what you perceive as hostility from others, but it opens also up your choice about how to respond. Sometimes a gentler response will defuse the situation. You may choose simply to let something go. Or, you can moderate your anger by communicating your concern for the other person and your intention to preserve the relationship. People will then feel that your heart is in the right place and be more receptive to your desires.

Enneagram Style Nine: The pull to relax effort and go with the flow

Nines are the great mediators of the Enneagram; they excel at seeing and soliciting all points of view and providing fair-minded leadership and connectivity to bring people together in pursuit of shared goals and tasks. However, Nines can also over-mediate, preferring to relax and go with the flow rather than to assert themselves or focus on direct action.

Nines like to be comfortable, but comfort is not necessarily their friend! It's all too easy to simply go along with the agenda of others while not speaking up and easy to forget one's own priorities when there are many other useful tasks to be done. There is a strong, internal pull to move away from feelings of discomfort or distress. Why not stay relaxed and peaceful? Why can't we all just get along?

The emotional habit for Nines is called laziness. This doesn't mean that they are not capable of doing hard work and achieving results, but rather that there is a kind of stubborn unwillingness to pay attention to anything that could disrupt their peace and comfort. The message to others is "Don't rock my boat; don't make waves," and if people persist with demands or expectations, Nines get angry. This anger may come out directly, but more often it shows up in the form of withdrawal and a slowing down. Their bodies may still be in the room, but they have gone somewhere else inside.

Conflict is the shadow issue for Nines. This could be internal conflict in the form of mixed feelings about something, resistance to taking action, or self-deprecation or negative self-judgment that may arise. It can also be conflict between the Nine and others. It's scary to risk breaking the connection by saying no, disagreeing with someone, or taking a strong position. Nines say that conflict, or the threat of conflict, is actually a physically painful experience. As a result, it’s necessary for Nines to breathe deeply and reassure themselves that conflict does not mean a broken relationship.

Body awareness practice is especially important for Nines. It gives them the ability to move from the emotional pattern of Laziness to the higher emotional state of Right Action, which is the willingness and ability to face what needs to be done and to move forward with an open heart. These practices help Nines stay present through discomfort and conflict. Over time, this process becomes less painful and more empowering. When they do this, a powerful resource emerges – their own vitality.

Suggestions for Body Awareness Practice

You have a powerful resource in your body – the ability to sense things and to know what works, what doesn't, what you need, and what you have to say. Your challenge is to stay present with feelings of discomfort, and you can learn the signals. The first signal is the sensation of pulling away from situations or activities that require your best efforts and attention. This can result in "spacing out," seeking comfort through activities like eating, reading, and TV, or losing yourself in nonessential tasks. Try to catch the moment when you go away inside. What does this shift feel like? What was the discomfort that set this in motion? What feelings are you avoiding?

Another set of signals is related to anger. If you tune in to yourself, your body will tell you when you are angry. Sometimes the angry feeling is very strong and clear; at other times, the clues are a feeling of rigidity or a resistance to being pushed around. Try to notice when you feel stubborn or withdrawn. What is the message here? While there are no hard and fast rules about when or how you communicate your anger to others, you will benefit by knowing it's there.

As a Nine, you have a pattern of taking other peoples energy, attitudes, and desires into your own body (or becoming tense and resistant to avoid this). Blending with others is your natural tendency. While it can lead to cooperation and harmony in relationships, it can also lead to self-forgetting – that is, not paying attention to yourself. When you are connecting with your own body and your own feelings and priorities, you are much less likely to take on other people's energy and agendas automatically. And if there is a blending between you and another, this mixture includes you as well as the other person. Genuine blending requires two individuals who retain their own sense of self in the process, and body awareness practice helps you to do this.