I work with large corporate clients and budding solopreneurs all the time. The question when in any business, no matter the size, is: "How do I maximize my resources?" 

How do I get the most bang for my buck? The most efficiency for my time? 

When facing a perceived "lack" in business, we have two options:

1) Find more
2) Get more out of what you already have

It may feel sexier to go with option one, but it is so much easier to at least give option two a try. 

What does this have to do with Emotional Intelligence? 
Everything. 

If we consider that humans are the most valuable resource we have in our business (and this includes solopreneurs - YOU are your most valuable asset) then it only makes sense to nurture humans, commit ourselves to their thriving, and give them to tools for self-care, interpersonal navigation and innovation. 

Self-Care

If the humans in our businesses are not engaging in self-care (I know it's a buzz word these days, stay with me)...

The idea that there is one “ideal” or preferred or superior body type, physical features or capabilities is as ridiculous as believing there is one ideal Enneagram type.

And yet....

We see the dehumanization of us all, constantly, as this lie of the “ideal” body image swirls around us. The very air we breathe.

How can we confront and heal from it? We MUST dehumanize. We must take back our humanity from IMAGE to essence.

Today I have some thoughts on where each type MAY struggle with Body Image and some thoughts to help bring about freedom.

This is the topic and the work we are doing ALL MONTH long in my Enneagram Community. If this is the work you need to do, send me a DM.

I honor and respect all of you on this journey to loving your self and your body in a world that tells you not to.

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Shame manifests differently for each type, and as with all our Enneagram work, we must start with self-observation. Getting to know the nuances of how shame shows up for us can help us better identify it and begin to root it out. This is SO important because the nature of shame it that it is most powerful when it is hidden to us and we believe the SHAME we feel is TRUE. 

Only when we identify shame as such, can we distance ourselves from it and no longer allow ourselves to internalize it's toxic message. 

Now, as I dive into how shame manifests for each type, it is SUPER important for me to add this disclaimer: These are STARTING POINTS from which to do your own observation. These are not prescriptive - these are not...

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Have you ever listened to an Enneagram teacher and they throw out some terms that you aren't fully understanding?? Today I am defining two terms: Ego and Essence. 

Ego = False Self
Essence = True Self

Before we go too much further let me just say that neither "self" is bad or good. They are simply two ways of being that do carry with them some consequences, but that's all. I don't want to vilify either of these two ways of being. Both belong. 

Let's start with False Self and Ego. I use these two terms interchangeably. It's the self that we feel that we have to be to make our way in the world. It's a self that is not our true essence, but something we have manufactured. Typically this is something that we create early on in our childhood. We perceive a lack in our "holding" (the environment in which we grew up) and when we perceive this lack we try to create balance by fabricating a...

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Don't hear what I'm not saying (one of my childhood friend's dad used to say this all the time).

I do not believe the Enneagram can only be useful to ONE religious perspective. I believe the Enneagram transcends religion and can be useful and pulled into all religions and spiritualities. 

However, it IS a tool for spiritual growth, so we are going to go there. 

In my 5 Day Enneagram Challenge I talk a lot about how the Enneagram is a MAP. It's a guide to show us where we begin our journey, where we want to end, how we move and how we might plot a way to get there. 

All Enneagram work should end in freedom - transforming BEYOND our personality and finding that this persona, this armor that we carry is restricting us, it's causing us pain and it's no longer necessary. We begin to take off the armor as we make our way through Enneagram work. 

Removing the armor requires a spiritual...

We are made of both breath and dust. Divinity and humanity. The image of the divine, stamped in flesh and bone.

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We walk in full HUMANITY when we honor both of these elements.

We shrink as a shell of our true selves when we reject either (or both).

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This is what breath (divinity) affirms to us: “I AM.”

This is where humanity intersects: “I allow.”

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Take time today to ask yourself: “Do I see and honor the image of the divine in me? Do I believe I am held, supported, loved, provided for, protected, connected, safe, worthy and good?”

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Take time today and ask yourself “Where am I rejecting my humanity? Where am I refusing to allow for flaws and needs, discomfort and failure, chaos, love and mystery?”

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Ego refuses both breath and dust. Healing comes when we work to return and become FULLY HUMAN once more.

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If you are intrigued by this concept, and would like to explore where this refusal to step into both your divinity and humanity...

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"When the Enneagram is not coupled with compassion it can become a weapon."

Read that again. 
One more time. 

Ok. Listen, this is true not only in how we use the Enneagram with others, but JUST as importantly, how we use it with ourselves. 

Compassion must increase along with our understanding of the Enneagram, or it will wound us. 

Here are a few simple ways you can practice compassion (and self-compassion) as you move along your Enneagram journey. 

1) Let the Enneagram meet you (and others) right where you are at. 

There is so much peace in admitting that you aren't ready for the Enneagram to be anything more than a fun tool for classifying yourself. 
There is so much space for simply using it to help you do better work with your team. 

If you partner doesn't care to learn more than just his/her type (or isn't even interested in that) that's ok.

Just because the Enneagram is a deeply spiritual and healing tool doesn't mean you have to be ready...

Behavior
Emotions
Thoughts

What I do
How I feel
What I think

What I'm angry about
What makes my heart hurt
What I'm afraid of

There is a hierarchy to human behavior.

Usually when we seek growth or transformation we are looking at our BEHAVIOR, we are looking at what we do and something about it makes us angry (or upset). We feel the pain of being stuck in our own actions or habits. 

I often am hired by my clients to help them deal with behavior.
But behavior is never where we start our work. 

Behavior is the RESULT of the layers beneath. 

We do what we FEEL like doing.

We FEEL because of what we THINK to be true, about ourselves, God and others. 

And so, if we want to change behaviors, there are a few steps we must take, and these steps seem to take us BACKWARDS and deeper INTO pain rather than forwards and out of pain, and this is often why we stay stuck a lot longer than we need too because the way out is THROUGH. Not around, over or away, but THROUGH.