The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery
Why I picked up this book:
My dear friend and prayer partner recently mentioned the Enneagram to me, and I was intrigued. Then I received a copy of this book in the mail so I jumped right in.
Who Should Read The Road Back to You:
The Road Back to You is beneficial for anyone who is interested in spiritual formation, seeking to better understand themselves, or desires to strengthen their personal relationships.
What’s in Store for You:
A Deeper Understanding –
The Enneagram is an old ancient practice of better understanding ourselves. Some would consider it a personality map that has evolved over time. Its premise is based on how we are wired to survive and respond to the world, and how that internal wiring is informed or reinforced through our childhood experiences.
“The purpose of the Enneagram is to develop self-knowledge and learn how to recognize and dis-identify with the parts of our personalities that limit us so we can be reunited with our truest and best selves.”
The Enneagram is a circle map that identifies nine personality types and how they interact with each other. The nine personality types are: the perfectionist, the helper, the performer, the romantic, the investigator, the loyalist, the enthusiast, the challenger, and the peacemaker.
Each of these personality types are also grouped into three triads—to articulate how you habitually take in, process, and respond to life. The triads are: anger and gut, feeling or heart, and fear or head.
Each personality type is assigned a number and each of those numbers are assigned both a stress and security number. Confused yet? It’s actually not that bad when you have a visual image of the map to review.
Additionally, the authors do a great job of presenting each of the numbers and supporting information. Your stress number is the personality trait you are prone to emulate when you are stressed. Likewise, your security number reflects the personality you lean towards when you are emotionally healthy, feel safe and secure. Each number also has a deadly sin of association.
My personal take-aways?
Since all of this is new information to me, my first thought was to figure out my Enneagram number or personality type. I think I have an idea about my leanings, but the book presents the basically so I’m actually going to work through some of this with a counselor and maybe my husband.
The Enneagram challenges you to consider the motivations behind your actions. What drives you to respond to the world in the way(s) that you do?
I love how detailed and organized the chapters are. Each chapter begins by articulating what the personality trait looks when a person is healthy, average, or unhealthy. The deadly sin is presented and is followed by a summary of the characteristics of a particular personality trait. Each chapter presents the likelihood of what the personality trait experienced or the messages that were processed and received in childhood, and then the challenges that each personality type currently faces in their personal relationships.
The wing numbers (the numbers that are adjacent to your personality number) are addressed, followed by the stress and security numbers. Finally, each chapter closes with the ten paths to transformation for the particular personality trait. The paths offer practical application for the information learned.
At the end of the book, the reader is drawn back to the big picture of desiring love and compassion for oneself and for others who are different—those who see, experience, and therefore respond to life differently than we do.
Want to know more, check out the book’s official website: http://theroadbacktoyou.com/
Twitter-worthy:
“The source of most of your problems is you.” @RoadBack2U
Quotable:
“The Enneagram should only be used to build others up and help them advance on their journey towards wholeness and God.” – Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile
“The Enneagram shows us that we can’t change the way other people see, but we can try to experience the world through their eyes and help them change what they do with what they see.” – Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile
“Every number on the Enneagram teaches us something about the nature and character of the God who made us.” – Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile
Next Up on This Topic:
“The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life” by Ann Voskamp
© Natasha Sistrunk Robinson 2016
A SISTA'S JOURNEY 