Enneagram Type 5- The Investigator

image from https://strangenotions.com/einstein-god/

    When I think of a Type 5, my mind goes immediately to an absent minded professor- someone who thinks and plans their way through life. A five is interested in knowing things and feels more secure when they know them deeply. They are the obvious 'head' person, living a full, productive, satisfying life completely in their minds.

Enneagram Type 4: The Romantic

    When I think of a type 4, I think moody, artistic, creative, the need to be distinctive. This photo of Bob Dylan from the New York Times just captures the feeling of a Four. They create so much beauty just by being willing to embrace the darkness in life.
     Being friends with a Four can be a wild ride. As a Two, I always want to fix things and make you feel better. My friends who are Fours don't want to be fixed, in fact, they tend to create more chaos for themselves because in sadness and strife they have more energy and creativity.

Enneagram Type Three: The Achiever

   This comic by Clare Cherikoff says it all! Type Threes are the achievers. They are often good looking, have a presence that helps them stand out from the crowd, and measure their lives by how successful they are.
     I was fortunate to be part of a long standing book group run by a Three, and ably assisted by another Three. We always had the next book picked out early, everything was on time, and she could somehow attract more people when others moved on. When she got a new job and leadership of the group passed to a Seven, the group began to struggle. Nothing was wrong, but slowly people stopped coming. When the other Three withdrew,

Enneagram Type One Videos

     I left the videos out of the Enneagram Type One post. Here are two that I really enjoyed.

Enneagram Type 2: The Helper

from here

    When you try to visualize a Type Two, think Dori from Finding Nemo. Always super helpful, super cheerful, loving, caring, and above all, fixing things for you. As a Two myself, I can tell you that I'm great to be around if you want help on your project, but much more difficult if you just want to tell your story because I want to fix whatever the problem is. Also, I'm told my happiness before the first cup of coffee is absolutely insufferable.

Enneagram Overview and Type One

from here

   Have you ever looked at someone and thought 'why are they doing that?'
      I think that is the basic state of existence since the only head we can get into is our own. When I am trying to figure out people, or, better yet, the client in front of me, I turn to the enneagram. It is a tool for understanding how we come to the crazy decisions we all make. The enneagram describes internal energies expressed through outward actions. Think of a habit you just can't break, or the thing that you do that everyone around you asks you to stop. From my life, it's over helping. The first words in my mind when someone describes a problem are always 'how can I help?' After learning the Enneagram, now I keep offers to help inside (some times).

How to Grow in a Desert? Focus Your Energy

flowers in the desert- source

      There is a desert, the Atacama, that stretches from Peru to Chile, where parts have not seen rain since record keeping began.  The only moisture available comes from a dense fog known as camanchaca, formed when cold air associated with ocean currents originating in the Antarctic hits warmer air. The amazing thing is that this harsh climate supports more than a million people.  Both plants and people survive by harvesting the camanchaca fog.
         The plants are low growing, having hairy leaves and many branches to provide the most surface area for the fog to condense upon. People do something similar. They use fog nets, fine mesh screens that capture the fog and allow it to condense.  This provides enough water for the people, but also their animals and crops to survive.  Scientists are developing man made structures to to the same thing. I have included some fascinating pictures of fog towers in development.  The final towers will be 400 meters tall!

Alberto Fernández and Susana Ortega's fog tower- source

            I learned about this fascinating place several years ago, and as with so many things, promptly forgot.  At Friday's yoga class, in the middle of savasana meditation, it popped up in my mind (sorry Wendy).  Recently I have been told by several people that I need to narrow my focus.  The reason I am not seeing the success that I desire is that I am giving too much passion to too many projects.  I have been sending out energy like fog in the desert, plenty of water, but all it nurtures are a million tiny plants.  Even before this advice, I had been thinking maybe it is time to stop taking the next class and playing around with the next bit of healing technology.  I really like reiki and yoga, with a little help from the BioGenesis tools and the crystals.

fine mesh to capture the fog

      It is time to pick one of two affirmations and set them up like fog towers in my own personal desert.  At first, even thinking about doing this was a bit daunting.  It is easier for me to see a few steps than the ultimate objective.  In this instance clarity came, not in a flash of insight, but in realizing what I don't need to work on.
       A friend had offered me a book about deathbed wishes (you know... I wish I had - spent more time with my kids- had a relationship with my family- worked for charity etc, etc, etc).  All of these desires are great, but they are what I spent the first half of my life working on.  In staying home with the children and focusing on family and church work, these areas feel strong.  What I need to work on is what everyone else does in their twenties- business and health.  Once I figured out the focus, the affirmations began to arise.  One is very strong and the other is still a bit murky.  I know I have it right when I can look myself in the eyes in a mirror as I say the affirmation out loud.
        Like the fog towers in the desert, my two affirmations are already beginning to collect energy.  When I arise in the morning, they are my fuel.  Before beginning my yoga practice, they are my intentions.  Even as I clean house, it is toward these affirmations.  With these in mind, I drink the cool clear water of progress rather than wandering in the fog.

Thank heavens for little boys (they bail out their moms)

A few quick thoughts to start out your morning (oops, it is afternoon now)...
         There is nothing like experience (darn it).  Yesterday I spent hours working on the back side of this blog. Did you know that the bits of code to make the archive (or lots of other things) are called widgets?  Now I do as well.  I felt like a elementary school child, trying to memorize math facts.  It was so much harder than it felt like it should be.
          Among the changes I was trying to make was an archive by topic rather than just by date and title.  I like to use the web for information, and the old archive just wasn't cutting it.  So after searching for quite a while, I finally found a bit of HTML that would create the new archive.  Just cut one line of code and insert these seven lines.  I scrolled through code for 30 minutes, finally found it, replaced it, and it didn't work.  Couldn't find a widget on the google page.  Aak!
           Fortunately for my sanity, my son, the computer science major, chose this moment to return home from work.  He used keyboard shortcuts (who knew!), replaced the code, and it still didn't work.  So he went searching, found the widget that worked and had the new archive up and running in less than 5 minutes.  The power of practice.         
          My son says this feeling of incomprehension is the most irritating because we have a reasonable expectation of ease, given to us by books.  For the sake of the book, the chosen one learns things instantly. How annoying that we are not the "chosen one."
           There is a wonderful book by Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success. In this book, he describes the power of practice in all endeavors.  Here's a bit about the book and how to cultivate your reiki practice.
          Create the life you desire.  Like many of you I read the books the secret and the power.  I attended a weekend with Esther and Jerry Hicks, listening to Abraham answer the audience's questions.   One thing that is repeated over and over is the importance of positive thinking and upbeat emotions.  This picture of the sky at Peaceful Meadow Retreat in Boulder, Colorado reminds me of me on an average day.

  After my son got the new archive going, I looked over the labels now on the right hand side of the screen.  I realized that not only was I giving a gift of these desirable thoughts and emotions to you, dear reader, I created a place for me.  As I write and edit (and figure out how to make a hyperlink) I get to spend time being happy, thinking about things I am passionate about.  Again, who knew?

Here is my mind on reiki.  These pictures were taken about 5 seconds apart on Dec. 12, 2012, the day our class sat in the Seat of Genesis at the end of the Genesis Acceleration Program.  I was just walking around, enjoying the crunch of snow beneath my boots and the smell of the country.  I snapped a few photos of the snow and sky and got a picture of the heavens rejoicing.  What a great day.

See the Energy All Around Us

                This is it.  I’ve finally joined the 21^st century and have a smart phone.  Is it a camera? Is it a phone?  All of the above.  Having a camera always on the ready.  I’m getting the opportunity to experience something a friend showed me years ago.  Photography allows us to see the unseen.

                Here is a photo of the Cloud Gate (aka the Bean) sculpture in Chicago.  The vivid pink orb on the left was a welcome surprise.  In the last 3 years I have seen similar things in others photos.  Since November I have been seeing them with my naked eyes.  What makes this so great is that it is not a talent I have always had.  It is one that I have learned.

                I began to practice a few years ago.  My teacher, JoAnn, said anyone could learn to see energy.  I began by finding a high energy place to observe. My house is cleared and filled with reiki daily.  So I decided to go to the back yard and look at it.  On a sunny summer day energy just radiates off the house and the sky.  At first it looked like black dots winking in and out.  After about a year, they started to look like lines.  (Interesting side note: as I wrote this in my head while driving south on I-65, I tried to see the energy all around, I couldn’t see a thing.  Since being able to see energy is so new to me, I wondered if the ability had gone. Turns out, in this area, there was just very little to see.  We were driving through factory farms, both vegetable (corn and soybeans) and meat.  Though the fields looked verdant, the buildup of chemicals and animal waste poisoned the area.  As we reached an area of mixed small farms and open land, there was plenty of energy to see again. Thank Goodness!)

                This fall I learned a process called “creating” using the BioGenesis tools.  After the first class, the Course of Eternal Light, one of the things I chose to create was to be able to see the unseen.  I poured energy into it for several weeks.  One day I saw a brilliant blue circle or orb wink in and out in front of my husband.  Of course, I thought I was crazy and ignored it.  A few moments later it flashed even brighter.  When I dowsed for answers, it turned out to be his guardian angel. 

                As time has passed, I see angels more frequently.  The neat thing is, there does not seem to be any message attached.  They have no agenda.  They are just here to be with us and periodically remind me that they would be glad to help.  I am beginning to see the energy in reiki sessions, coming from my students hands and sometimes flowing through the client’s body. Again, so far it is not useful, just way cool.  Can’t wait to see what the future brings.

                Any tips, tricks or stories to add? Just click on the word comments to share with us.