Uncover Your Authentic Identity: Enneagram Personality Types
The Enneagram is a powerful tool for personal growth and self-awareness. It can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, your motivations and fears, and your core values and beliefs. But the Enneagram is not just about your positive qualities. It also sheds light on your shadow side – the parts of yourself that you might not want to acknowledge or that are hidden from your conscious awareness.
Understanding the Shadow Side of Your Enneagram Type
The shadow is a term used in psychology to describe the unconscious aspects of our personality that we repress, deny, or disown. These are the parts of ourselves that we find unacceptable or threatening, so we push them into the background of our consciousness. But just because we don't acknowledge them doesn't mean they don't exist or have an impact on our lives. In fact, our shadow can often drive our behavior, attitudes, and choices without us even realizing it.
How Does the Enneagram Help Us Understand Our Shadow?
Luckily, you found out powerful tool for self-improvement. Each enneagram type consists of unique set of motivations and weaknesses which determine your behavior. By understanding which characteristics influence your personality type the most you can start to see fears and weaknesses which prevent you to become a better person.
For example, if you belong to type 3 - the Achiever, you may struggle for desire to be seen as successful as possible, which is most of the time impossible. You are willing to be externally validated by others and measure your success and career by external appreciation.
How to Work with Your Shadow
Thus, you need to step out of your shadow and make yourself aware of these bad things and start accepting these parts of yourself as a characteristic which can be controlled and pushed away in an everyday situations.
Here are some tips for working with your shadow using the Enneagram:
Identify your Enneagram type and read about the unconscious beliefs, fears, and desires associated with it.
Reflect on the ways in which your shadow tendencies show up in your life. When do you feel most triggered or reactive?
Practice self-compassion and non-judgment as you explore your shadow. Remember that these are simply parts of yourself that have been pushed into the background.
Use the insights from your Enneagram type to begin integrating your shadow into your conscious awareness. For example, if you are a Type Four (the Individualist) and tend to feel ashamed of your emotional intensity, practice embracing and expressing your emotions in a healthy way.
By working with your shadow, you can begin to heal and integrate the parts of yourself that have been holding you back. The Enneagram is a powerful tool for this work, helping you to understand your unconscious tendencies and bring them into the light of your conscious awareness.