Empowered, Direct, No BS

Allowing the wisdom at enneagram point eight to guide the beginning of our years

three words for enneagram eight

Yesterday evening we shared a session at The Soul Shed where we created aligned and grounded affirmations for the new year.

Thank you to those who came and took part in this, I like to think, saner alternative to new year resolutions!

The discovery that inspired this offering was that often resolutions are made by parts of psyche that do not necessarily serve our best interests. And then keeping to them then relies on somehow finding the will power to upholding the ideas of this fragmented part of self.

The session was inspired somatically by the direct no nonsense clarity of energy of enneagram point eight, and the innocence and holy truth found there too. And to find into this space internally we used breath work and sensing into the downward connection into the earth of the root chakra.

Step two in the 12 step healing tradition fits here too: ‘Came to believe a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity’.

A power greater than ourself.

Not will power.

The polarity and journey built into point eight is between control and surrender, power and trust in a deeper holy truth, and the innocence that offers. Dancing with this polarity was where we needed to be.

Of course this is all quite abstract. Our gathering was full of sharing, joining of dots and maps, somatic enquiry and personal journalling, so that the affirmations came out of an experiential journey.

More about the session

After we used conscious breathing to self connect, we uncovered unmet needs and desires….this was a good beginning of generating raw and real life material.

That stuff might ordinarily be the stuff of a half-baked resolution…But that was only the beginning.

Enneagram teacher Sandra Maitri did an immense piece of work on anti-self actions and we next found ourselves in those, using tri-fix, which is a three part enneagram archetype. If you are following the tree-type series, you will have a felt sense of some of these, and if you are an enneagram student you might be exploring yours already.

I had the pleasure of being in a book club that studied her teachings in depth last year.

Each enneagram personality trifix has a cluster of these at their disposal !

To give a working example, I will share something of my own process…

I was pondering the distress I have around a relationship recently ending, a desire to feel healthier in my body, and practicalities around organising my life.

My anti-self actions, found at enneagram 648 are self under-cutting, self-controlling and self-punishing.

A heady cocktail! You’re probably not surprised to hear I have a noisy inner critic on board who uses these when I don’t pay attention to my deeper needs.

Left unchecked, these habits of mind could easily have turned transforming my desires and unmet needs into a very intense kind of bootcamp.

The work was to frame our affirmations without the energy of the anti-self team!

Once those gatekeepers were passed I found three affirmations to see me into the year that I really love:

I bring more physical energy into my days again.

I prioritise connecting with what and who I love.

I release self-blame.

I feel really supported by these affirmations and I’ve written them at the top of my diary page.

I want to make them second nature this month. This doesn’t feel strenuous but like true self-care.

Edit: Each day Im bringing these three new companions into my breathwork practice, and Ive noticed that the language has changed for two of them as I am allowing more surrender in.

Here are the new versions.

I honor my time in connecting with what and who I love.

I find the new ways for movement in my body.

I hope these things continue to evolve and unfold in good ways for you too.

Until next time,

Big love.

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If you didn’t make Sunday Openings this time and this kind of journey is for you too - let’s set up a session. Message me here if you would like to, and we can easily set that up.

Or, if you would like to explore your own portals and openings via the amazing intuitive creative process of SoulCollage©, look out for a new online event coming soon at The Soul Shed!