Yoga JournalUSA-January-February_2017

29

february 2017

yogajournal.com

WITHIN

ORAL BROWN, a yoga teacher and

licensed mental-health counselor

in Rhode Island, uses the word

“co-dependent” to describe her previous

romantic relationship, which lasted more

than a decade. But at the time, she didn’t

realize she was in such a pattern of over-

giving that she was losing herself. While

her yoga practice helped shine a light on

this tendency, Brown says studying the

Enneagram—a four-decade-old personal-

ity-assessment system—also revealed that

it was time to move on from the relationship.

“The Enneagram enabled me to really see

my core patterns,” says Brown, “ultimately

helping me meet my needs in a healthier,

more conscious way than ever before.”

The name Enneagram stems from the

Greek words ennea, a prefi x for “nine,” and

gramma, meaning “to draw.” The system’s

icon is a nine-pointed star, each point rep-

resenting a distinct personality type. Most

Enneagram experts agree we are all born

with one dominant personality type (or

number), which largely determines how we

learn to adapt to our environment and the

people in it. The Enneagram surfaced in the

United States in the 1 97os, riding the tails of

the human-potential movement (think ther-

apy, encounter groups, and primal scream).

Since then, therapists, spiritual teachers,

coaches, and even businesses have used the

Enneagram as a tool to stoke authenticity,

expose core motivations, and ultimately

reduce interpersonal confl ict. How can a

simple personality test do all this?

“There’s resistance to change within all

of us, and the Enneagram describes what

that resistance is about for each of us,” says

Peter O’Hanrahan, a leading international

Enneagram teacher and trainer. “As a result,

this system gives you very clear informa-

tion about what you need to work on.” To

wit, when Brown learned more about her

Enneagram number—a Two—she was bet-

ter able to see her core pattern of giving to

others to feel good about herself, and that

realization gave her a choice: do something

about her blind spots, or ignore them. She

chose to act. “I left my partner, and I found

more of my own identity in my yoga teach-

ing,” says Brown. “I was more aligned with

my truer purpose and nature.”

Susan Piver, author of the meditation

primer Start Here Now and a meditation

teacher who leads retreats on the Ennea-

gram, says the kind of alignment Brown

experienced is what yoga is about at its core.

“The Enneagram will tell us what we cannot

see about ourselves—our ways of being that

stem from our most wounded selves, which

create confusion as a result,” says Piver. And

if you’re willing to look at these wounds,

which are almost always rooted in unexam-

ined pain, you can start to chart a new, more

authentic course forward, she says. “At a

certain point—especially if you’re on a

spiritual path—you have to do this,” Piver

says. Read on to fi nd out how.

C

In an ideal world, we’d always think and act from a place of wisdom and

oneness. But in the real world, ingrained patterns and personality traits can

get in the way. Enter the Enneagram, a personality assessment that can help

you see what’s keeping you from realizing your most authentic, highest

self. Here’s how to use it, along with your yoga practice, to change course.

Story by Elizabeth Marglin | Photography by Jeff Nelson

MODEL: LINDSAY GONZALEZ; STYLIST: JESSICA JEANNE EATON; HAIR/MAKEUP: BETH WALKER; TOP: MARA HOFFMAN; RINGS: MODEL’S OWN