A lot of people read about the Enneagram, think “yup, that’s me” or “no way, this is so not right” and then put the book down and carry on their merry way. I’ve found that the Enneagram is a really practical tool that supports my daily healing practice, so I thought I’d jot down a few examples to give you an idea how you can use the wisdom of this tool yourself, if you are interested.

One way I work with the Enneagram is to pick up a book about it, and skim through the section on my ennea-type, and see which statement jumps out at me the most. I then do one of the following with it:

* Create an EFT statement about the behaviour and tap that, and be aware of any thoughts to come to mind of specific examples in the past where I have displayed this behaviour. I then sit down and brainstorm what messages I had in my childhood about the item I’m working with, and tap all over anything that comes up.

* Do a Focusing session, starting by asking “Where in my body do I sense the whole of my need to x?” and follow the felt-sense that comes up in the usual way with Focusing.

In addition to working with the issue with one of the tools above, I also try to be mindful of when the issue comes up in daily life, to see how I react to it. I find that the more that I can bring awareness to what is driving my behaviour, the less the unconscious beliefs are able to control me! Doing some Focusing or EFTwith the behaviour seems to help me to clear the way to see different aspects of it coming up in my daily life.

Here’s a couple of simple examples to give you an idea of how this has helped me.

I’ve recently read “Discover Your Soul Potential – Using the Enneagram to Awaken Spiritual Vitality” (an excellent book if you want a new perspective of using the Enneagram.) One of the statements about my ennea-type that REALLY jumped out at me as I was reading was:

“Ones are tyrannized by the demands of the immediate.”

So I created an EFT statement of:

“Even though I am tyrannized by the demands of the immediate, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”

I tapped through a couple of rounds with this statement. Quite a few thoughts came to mind, including some great writing on the walls (like “If you aren’t early you’re late!”). I tapped them and any specific events in the past that I could think of where there was pressure put on me to respond to the immediate. Since doing this tapping I have become VERY aware of just how much I am responding instantly to the immediate, and I have regularly found myself smiling in amusement at my knee jerk thinking I need to do something NOW! I’ve also discovered that in my operating this way, I do indeed have the relationship with time that the book I've been reading about suggests that my ennea-type have, something I couldn't really see before doing the EFT on this. I read recently that it takes 30 days for all your blood to be changed out, and that while tapping with EFT can instantly re-align your energy system, it pays to keep tapping on deep-seated stuff like this for 30 days, whenever the issue arises, to be sure that you’ve cleared all the chemical aspects of the programs you’ve been running nearly all your life (in your blood). So while I have actually found myself on occasion no longer being tyrannized by the demands of the immediate, I’ve also found myself with plenty of tapping opportunities to reinforce my new relationship with time!

A second example is that every book I’ve ever read on the Enneagram suggests that us ennea-type ones have a tendency to think that we are right and that our way is the ONLY correct way to do something (ouch!) I recently decided to humour the authors, and work on the assumption that MAYBE there were occasions in my life where this happened. Since tapping on the issue, and becoming more aware of the origins of it, I’ve even been able to do something the way someone else thought it should be done, even though I was ABSOLUTELY SURE it was the wrong way. I watched with interest to see what unfolded as a result of doing it the “wrong” way, only to find that it worked brilliantly (and the way I wanted to do it could have backfired on me big time!!!)

These are just a couple of examples to show that the Enneagram can be used as a really practical tool to assist you on your healing journey. Combined with the amazing methods we have available to us these days, like Focusingand EFT, the Enneagram has the potential to really help us to let go of self-defeating behaviour and come to be far more at peace with ourselves.