The Enneagram of Discernment: The Way of Vocation, Wisdom, and Practice

When we experience fear, our brain short-circuits pathways of rational thinking, reacting more from the amygdala in a survival mode. This process plays tricks with our memory, breeding uncertainty. The uncertainty can be overwhelming, causing us to freeze in our tracks.

The first is primarily psychological, employing the enneagram as a personality typing tool; a handy way to understand people.

combine the two lists to begin to explore the way of unknowing for each type. We must unknow the first message to embrace what was once lost.

Second, we must acknowledge the Divine Voice who calls us “beloved.”

As we consider how our dominant enneagram type impacts our employment of the three centers of intelligence, two specific triadic groupings are helpful: triads and stances. Triads are enneagram types that share a common dominant center of intelligence. Stances are enneagram types that share a common repressed center of intelligence.

We think about our experience, we feel our way through our experience, and we act upon our experience. Here’s how: Thinking intelligence is used for retrieving and organizing information. It also helps us plan and analyze. Feeling intelligence is used for observing emotions in ourselves and others, interpersonal community, and relationship. Doing i

The absence of trust in one’s own authentic identity is a powerful motivator to place trust in other things, hoping they will help us understand who we are. Coupled with a lifetime of results in which our adapted self has worked fairly well for us, discovering a different way of being is no small task.

Fifth, we must befriend ourselves.

Discernment: What am I doing? Those who lead from the Withdrawn Stance must find ways to align their heads and their hearts in their bodies. In a word, they must EMBODY their environments. Types Four, Five, and Nine can cultivate Wise Bodies to listen to their instincts and act when necessary.