my enneagram and me: type 9
This is basically just a personal waffley post mainly because I wanted an excuse to use the multitudes of pictures I took at the sunflower fields and haven't used yet but also because I've been thinking a lot about my enneagram lately and figured that there are definitely other people feeling the same way as me.
"TYPE NINE PROBLEMS AM I RIGHT!"
This is potentially my most used phrase. Hello, I'm Alice and I'm a type 9, also known as the peacemaker. Can my fellow type nines give me a whoop whoop! I'm not at all claiming to be some sort of enneagram expert and each enneagram type is distinct and different people express their type differently but this is just a few things that I notice in myself.
The Peacemaker, avoiding conflict is our big motivation but that can be both conflicts with each other, or with ourselves. This can manifest itself in many forms and as with everything, it can be in healthy doses and unhealthy doses. And at the minute I'm teetering on the edge of unhealthy so here's what I'm promising to do about it!
At their best type nines are at peace with themselves and able to form strong relationships with others, Deeply receptive, accepting, unselfconscious, emotionally stable and serene. Trusting of self and others, at ease with self and life, innocent and simple. Patient, unpretentious, good-natured, genuinely nice people who are generally optimistic, reassuring and supportive. Sounds great right?
However, as avoiders of conflicts, it can be very easy to diverge into less healthy levels. The second that a choice emerges, we tend to go with the flow and become much less peacemakers and much more just go-with-the-flow-ers. Saying yes to things just because offering an alternative would cause a very minor conflict to arise. We avoid asking for things so as not to inconvenience people and for lack of a better phrase 'keep the peace'.
This also leads to a lot of procrastination, and let me just tell you I am a MASTER procrastinator, I literally can't ride a bike because I procrastinated it too much as a child, start as you mean to go on I guess.
This can occur with responsibilities but also with problems. Addressing the challenge at hand can sometimes seem too daunting a task so we just push them under the rug and think we'll deal with them later but hoarding up problems just leads to a multitude of problems to deal with at a later stage leading to overwhelming bouts of anxiety and stress.
I'm currently feeling very much stuck at a level of putting other people's plans and priorities above my own so that's something that I'm planning on working on this October. Making sure I'm doing things that I want to do and not things that other people want to do that I'm just going along with because I'm a go-with-the-flow-er, while also making sure that I'm being accommodating and positive about other people's ideas too.
If you don't know your enneagram type I'd definitely suggest looking into it, there's a test you can take to give you an idea. It's a great tool to use for your personal development and allows you to understand a little bit more about how you operate at healthy and unhealthy levels.
Also definitely listen to Sleeping At Last's Enneagram EP because I guarantee that your song will give you ALL THE FEELS. I waited over a year for Nine but it was worth it!
And if you know your enneagram type, drop it below because I'm nosy and love knowing people's types!
