As Mulan once said, “when will my reflection show who I am inside?” Do you know who you are inside? When you think of qualities about yourself, do you jump to the negatives? Do you jump to the positives? Or do you sit with a blank mind because it can seem a lot harder to know yourself than to know other people? If you feel like you don’t really know who you are or how to understand yourself and you need some help with self-reflection, I have a magic word for you: ENNEAGRAM.
The enneagram is a nine-sided model of the human psyche that represents the spectrum of different personality types. The nine types, in consecutive order, are: the reformer, the helper, the achiever, the individualist, the investigator, the loyalist, the enthusiast, the challenger, and the peacemaker. These are very general depictions of each type, so you might think that you are every single personality type on the board. While you may exhibit any number of qualities from each type, you likely fall more into one type than another.
As a type two, I center my entire life around my relationships with people. It brings me joy to help others and to know that they come out of a situation feeling better because I was there to help. I used to question my self-worth on my friends’ opinions of me, and as long as they were happy with me, I was happy. I often felt alone and confused, though, because I felt like my friends didn’t exhibit the same acts of kindness towards me at the same level that I did. While I might stay awake until 3am talking someone through a mental breakdown, I often had to work through my own problems alone. It wasn’t until I found out what the enneagram was that I finally understood why this is: some people are just not relationship-centered, and that’s okay!
For example, the achiever will center his or her life around being valued in a school or work setting. The individualist will center his or her life around being a unique person. The peacemaker will center his or her life around having inner stability. I center my life around feeling loved and loving others to my fullest capability. Because every person falls into a different category of what they value the most, if you know what each personality type values, it is so much easier to understand both yourself and the people around you.
The Enneagram institute not only explains the strengths of each personality type, but also the weaknesses, basic fears, basic desires, key motivations, levels of development, personal growth recommendations, and more, of each type. So, it not only helps individuals learn about their good traits, but also helps them learn about their negative traits and grow and change to be the best version of themselves.
You can take the enneagram test here:
There are also spotify songs and instagram creators that explain enneagram types. Give the album Atlas: Enneagram by Sleeping at Last a listen – their type Two song hits home more to me than any other song ever has. There are a TON of instagram accounts based on enneagrams, but my personal favorite is @sarajanecase. Check the enneagram resources out, and have fun discovering who you are!