General Aims and Exercises

5. Enneagram Aims

1. Create a mask that represents each type.
   Put your mask on and look in a mirror.
   See and feel the truth of that type in your life and behavior.
   
   
2. Using tape, create a large Enneagram on the floor.
   Slowly walk from one type to the next, morphing into each type.
   Pay special attention to the feelings of transition from one type to the next.
   Self-observe results.
   
   
3. Imagine that you are dissolving yourself from one type into the next.
   Discover how each type learns to avoid taking responsibility for its own behavior.
   
   
4. How does each type manipulate its sphere/family/friends in order to get it's own way?



2. Digest at length, the following Enneagram defense modes to avoid conscience:

Enneagram Defense Modes
[Sojourner Pass Press, 1999]

9>3  Splitting
3>6  Projection
6>9  Workaholic
1>4  I am already so sorry in order not to feel at all
4>2  What can I do to make up for what I am already not willing to feel?
2>8  I only fight for good and noble causes.
8>5  Since I am forever never understood, I'll just give up.
5>7  I need a break for a few small pleasures
7>1  For me, pleasure is an art form and nobody is as good or deserving of it as I am.
      -or-
9>6  Paranoid: "You just can't be too careful."
6>3  It's important to keep up a winning facade.
1>7  I've worked so hard. I really need a break.
7>5  Boy, everybody's always trying to make me feel guilty.
5>8  Nobody is going to make me feel bad.
8>2  Where would they be without me?
2>4  Nobody realizes how hard I try
4>1 I always try to do and be my best.

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