“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen”
- Brene Brown.
Enneagram, For an Authentic Life
Both of us (Nick and Xue Han) initially decided to come together to design this 9 week course after we had personally benefited deeply from learning the Enneagram ourselves. It gave us a sharper awareness of the lenses we hold on to, to understand our automatic reactions and triggers, and learn to free ourselves from chains of limiting thoughts and emotional patterns. In our combined 16 years’ experience of facilitation, this was a tool we found to be extremely effective in guiding this process and allowing people to return to their authentic selves, and that is our goal in sharing this with others too.
What is Enneagram?
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“The Enneagram (from the Greek ennea , for “nine”) is an ancient system that identifies nine different personality types. (You can read more about the history of the Enneagram and the nine Numbers at the end of this Milestone.) Each personality or Number is determined by motivation and not by behavior. Motivations include a basic Passion and a basic desire (for example, the basic desire of a Seven on the Enneagram is to be happy).” - Suzanne Stabilie. A person’s Enneagram Type is like an image, a layer of self-protective personality that we learn to put on in early childhood.
Why is this important?
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While Enneagram is the tool that we are learning, it is crucial that we put equal emphasis, if not more, on “For an Authentic Life”, as seen in the title of this course.
Brene Brown defines authenticity as “the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are”. The goal of understanding our own numbers is to shed light on the image that we put on and discover our true self. At the heart of this work is self-understanding, emotional awareness, cultivating deeper compassion for ourselves and maturing beyond the limits of our personality. As we understand ourselves better, we could also start to see and empathise the pains and needs of others, improving our communication and relationships and to build healthy and sustainable culture that nourish in our communities.
Course Details
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This is a curated programme consisting over 12 hours of online learning resources for Enneagram theory at your own pace, and weekly online group sessions with facilitated discussions and activities to process learnings in-depth. Most importantly, a community of practice to apply learnings in our life alongside like-minded people.
What You Will Learn:
1. Knowledge and theory on the Enneagram Tool
2. Building of Personal Development and Emotional Awareness
Toggle the slideshow below for more information OR click here for the PDF document.
This is a curated programme consisting over 12 hours of online learning resources for Enneagram theory at your own pace, and weekly online group sessions with facilitated discussions and activities to process learnings in-depth. Most importantly, a community of practice to apply learnings in our life alongside like-minded people.
What You Will Learn:
1. Knowledge and theory on the Enneagram Tool
2. Building of Personal Development and Emotional Awareness
Toggle the slideshow below for more information OR click here for the PDF document.
Words from our Alumni
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We look forward to beginning a journey of deeper transformation with you
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“As we study the Enneagram, we gradually come to see how we frustrate what we most desire for ourselves. We become aware of what clouds our perceptions and blocks our energy. Through these awarenesses we can become reconciled with who we are and learn to flow with our life energies. We discover what endowment of ours is a gift for others as well as for us.”
- Suzanne Zuercher
FAQ
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︎ 1. Why Enneagram compared to other personality tools like MBTI types? Which is more accurate? What should we focus on?
MBTI is largely used to bring awareness of behaviours, as well as how we think and process information. Enneagram also provides this information, but that is not the end goal, because it goes deeper into understanding the core motivations of why we even behave, or think and process information that way.
In terms of accuracy and which to focus on, it depends on the purpose of using the tool. Generally, MBTI is much more effective in the context of team-bulding, understanding how to work with others better etc., which is why it is used very commonly in a corporate context. As for the Enneagram, it is largely recommended to be used in a intrapersonal context, in self development and awareness (hence using this tool in our course!)
That being said, it doesn’t mean that both tools are mutually exclusive, as both have intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects. It is just a matter of the focus of the tool.
︎ 2. Why do we need 9 weeks for the course?
Our course is designed not just for learning in knowledge of Enneagram, but more importantly, utilising it as a tool for self-discovery on why we do what we do, our core motivations and identities.
With that comes a lot of unlearning our past beliefs, thoughts and emotional patterns, and learning new ones that are healthier and true to ourselves. Hence, this will be a guided process that takes time with a unique pace for each individual.
That being said, the course is intentionally designed with facilitated discussions and activities, and a community of practice for the group to share insights and experiences and applying learnings to our live. This provides a holistic, conducive and safe environment where the process of our self-discovery is greatly accelerated as compared to other forms of self-development.
︎ 3. Will you be categorising us? Or are we taking a quiz and determining our own enneagram types?
We will not be typing you. There is no quiz either. This is one of the unique features of the course, where it is designed in a way to help you discover your own types through surfacing your awareness of your thoughts, emotions, behaviours, automatic reactions. Ultimately, the goal is an increased self-awareness brought about by introspection and realisation, instead of being ‘told’ our type.
The benefit of quizzes is that they are very effective in typing people quickly (just taking a short survey) but it usually also skips over the journey of personal discovery, which is our main purpose in this course.
This is also why the weekly sessions are crucial, in listening, making sense and processing with a supportive community.
︎ 4. Will the session be recorded if I am unable to make it?
As much as possible, we highly recommend you come for the sessions because there is no replacing the value of being engaged in the activities and discussions together.
But of course, if there are times that you unavailable, catching up on recordings is an option. However it would be necessary to obtain consent from all coursemates for sessions to be recorded, as everyone's privacy and ensuring a safe space for those present is ultimately the most important for us. All of these agreements can be sorted out on day one of the course (:
More words from our Alumni
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If you are wondering “do I really know who I am?”,
if you desire to know to see what life could be
if you lived with greater authenticity,
“May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.” - John O’ Donohue
if you desire to know to see what life could be
if you lived with greater authenticity,
“May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.” - John O’ Donohue
︎︎︎ Register for the upcoming Enneagram run.
[Registration close on 21 September]If you have more questions, feel free to drop Xue Han (@yuuuxuehan) a DM or email xuehan13@gmail.com.