The Enneagram

The enneagram, a model of human personality, is a great passion of mine. I have used it consistently in every area of my life for close to 20 years. It helps me figure out how to communicate with students so that they can actually hear me. It helps me to understand my husband in order to focus on our strengths as partners and minimize our weaknesses. It has helped me understand and soften toward myself.

We all have blind spots. The enneagram hands you a diagram of your own and others’. If you are willing to be brave, it gives you the opportunity to actually see the beliefs and patterns that you hold out of fear and self-protection. If you are willing to be even braver, it points the way to releasing them. If you are willing to braver still, it can guide you to releasing others from your expectations about who you think they should be and instead embrace who they are.

In other words, it is a compassion tool of the highest order. Deep, broad, complex, and subtle, the enneagram can teach you many things, from how to talk to a colleague about a new project to how to release yourself from the expectations of others and live authentically. It stops you from interpreting the actions of others through your own filters and thus enables you to know them rather than simply reacquainting yourself with yourself. It can help you avoid arguments in favor of connection. It enables you to see through others’ defenses to know them more genuinely. It enables you to see through your own defenses.

It both softens and sharpens you in all relationships—from the one you have with yourself to the one you have with the world.

Please join me for a workshop to explore this rich, powerful, and mind-altering system. We will meet on four Thursday evenings from 7:00p.m to 8:30p.m EDT. All classes will be recorded and a link set out within 24 hours of the date. Recordings will be available for 30 days once the program is complete. This program will be delivered via Google Hangouts on Air.

Schedule

Class One (July 9)

Introduction to the enneagram
Uses and abuses of the system
The Hornevian directional theory
Three triads/centers of intelligence:
The intuitive triad
The heart triad
The mental triad
Q&A

Class Two (July 16)

Three instinctual drives
Detailed overview of the intuitive triad: types and subtypes
Q&A

Class Three (July 23)

Detailed overview of the heart triad: types and subtypes
Detailed overview of the mental triad: types and subtypes
Q&A

Class Four (Aug 13) (note that there is a two-week gap between classes three and four)

What is your type?
Ways of working with the system going forward
Q&A

You may or you may not be certain of your type once this eCourse is completed. It can take time to figure it out but this program will give you the foundation for doing so.

This program includes a free month of membership in the Open Heart Project Sangha. If you choose to continue, you will be billed $27.00 a month. You may cancel at anytime (and be sure to cancel before the first 30-day period is up to avoid being charged for a second momth.)

If you have any questions, please email Michele.

Finally, let me just tell you that I use the enneagram every single day of my life. Next to the Buddhadharma, it is the primary beacon that lights my way to connect with myself and others in a way that is honest and thoughtful.