The Enneagram of Essence
By Chelsea Forbrook
The Enneagram of EssenceNov 15, 2021
Contacting Joy and Pleasure in the Breath (Guided Meditation)
This short practice will help you contact the joy, ease and pleasure that is already here in the present moment. All we need is a slight shift in the focus of our attention.
Guided Centering Prayer (Meditation)
This is a short introduction to the practice of Centering Prayer, which uses an anchoring word of your choice to bring you back to the present moment, and to surrender your ego's agenda over and over and learn to relax, center and let go.
Connecting with Awareness Itself (Guided Meditation)
So often when we meditate, we try so hard to be aware. In a sense, this is an attempt to DO the awareness. This guided meditation will help you connect with Awareness in an immediate sense, so that you are looking at the moment from the lens of Awareness itself, simply allowing it to happen. This meditation includes longer periods of silence so you can really settle in and experience the instructions being given.
"The Rounds" (Guided Meditation)
Sometimes our emotions or thoughts are too overwhelming and we need help slowing them down, self regulating, and coming back to reality. This simple meditation brings us into contact with neutral elements of the present moment so we can disengage from the swirl of thinking and feeling!
Opening and Aligning Your Three Centers (Meditation Practice)
This guided meditation will help you tap into the gifts and intelligence of each of your Centers: Gut, Heart and Head. In addition to feeling the pure energy of each Center, we will practice aligning them by removing blockages, so that communication and energy can freely flow between the Centers. Practicing this daily can and will be life changing!
LovingKindness (Metta) Meditation
This is a great meditation for opening your Heart Center. Practice giving and receiving kindness, spreading your well-wishes to everyone you encounter, including yourself. This form of meditation was initially taught by the Buddha.
Welcoming Prayer (Guided Meditation)
This 10 minute practice of allowing, acceptance, and non-resistance will help stop your battle with The Way Things Are. Shout out to Father Thomas Keating for developing this powerful method of consenting to Reality and Divine Will.
Contacting the Inner Observer (guided meditation)
An important development in our Inner Work journey is learning to contact the "Inner Observer" or "Inner Witness." This is the permanent, ever-present part of ourselves that is separate from our personality. The Inner Observer watches the activity of the personality (i.e. planning, fantasizing, remembering, feeling, thinking) without any judgement, and in a non-reactive way. When seeing ourselves from the interior space of Inner Witness, we have a profound experience and realization: I am not my thoughts! I am not even my personality! There's something more to me!
"Titration" Presence Practice
Use this short Titration exercise as a way to get grounded, centered, open and regulated. You will practice resourcing the grounding energies from the Earth and the expansive energies from the Heavens and bringing them into your body. (A different form of Titration is used in trauma therapy, and it has been adopted and adapted in spiritual circles. I learned this practice from my Enneagram teacher Anne Muree).
"That shirt is NOT salvation!" - Type 7 with Tyler Sit
"As it turns out, buying that shirt is not salvation! It just feels like it is because I can convince myself of a lot of things! ...The gap between a stimulus and your reaction is your freedom. That's very counterintuitive for a Seven, because for a Seven, it's like, 'I'm free if I can have a stimulus and react right away. No impulse control - that's what freedom means!' But actually, in the contemplative life, freedom means that you're not allowing the stimulus to take control of your life, and you're adding in breath and pause to exercise true Holy Freedom."
Tyler Sit takes us on an energetic, insightful, and profound exploration into what doing emotional work means for Sevens by exploring their "emotional backlog," and what it means to slow down and truly connect with the vibrancy and richness of life. For more on Tyler, visit https://www.tylersit.com/
Go In & Down- Type 6 with Karen Carlsen
"Hearing that '6's are afraid of Being' resonated so deeply, because I thought of all my years of running, and being busy, and thinking about being present, but not being present. Now I have much more of a practice of going in and down first before I go up and out."
Karen takes us on a courageous journey through loss and grief, mistyping herself as an Enneagram Two, and finding her own voice and inner guidance and authority.
"Wait, what's next?"- Type 5 with Ben Linzmeier
"I had an experience where my thinking stopped, utterly and completely and pretty suddenly. My instant reaction was, "Wait what's the next thought?" and there was no next coming. So that resulted in this terror, but then I would have this realization of, "Oh, this is what it is, without content." And I would feel blissed out...Since then, I have no conscious fear of death. It just opened deeper and deeper levels of Reality without any content at all."
Garbage Man of the Soul - Type 4 with Jenny Campbell
"The one thing that makes everybody else want to hide, makes me want to come out. It's like being Called to be a garbage man. Nobody wants to do this job, but I love it!"
Jenny takes us on a journey to the true opening of the Heart through recognizing its layers, and to contact genuine grief in a cleansing way. She explores body shame, the non-linear path of spiritual development, and the traps of feeling misunderstood and fatigued. Check out Jenny's workshops at www.enneawake.com
The Inevitable Breakdown- Type 3 with Emi
"I had one more work trip to complete for the year to "feel successful," like I had achieved enough. And I came to in a hospital bed with tubes hooked up to me and I couldn't breathe. And I thought, "This is it...wow, this is not how I want to leave the earth. I'm not ready!"
Emi tells her story of adapting between two worlds as a daughter of immigrants, the Enneagram cultural overlays of the US and Japan that influenced her personality, how overwork almost killed her, and how she recovered and learned to listen to her body's loving messages through her Zen practice, self care, and finding a supportive partner and community.
7 Minute Presence Practice (Meditation)
Here's a quick little guided centering exercise you can use whenever you need to check in with yourself and slow down. This practice helps contact our three Centers: body, heart and head in way that is honest, real, and compassionate. Enjoy!
"Selfless" is some Horse Sh*t!- Type 2 with Lynn O'Brien
"Who wants to be selfless? Without a SELF?? Absolutely not!...but for a long time, that's what felt like being spiritual and loving was supposed to be."
Lynn shares her journey with learning to set boundaries, asking for help, receiving, and feeling and loving her own darkness.
Doomed Missions - Type 1 with Chelsea Forbrook
TRIGGER WARNING: this episode mentions alcoholism and suicide.
"I was like, 'There's a hurting, lost soul! I can help that one!' And so off I went on lots of doomed missions, because they weren't asking to change, and they weren't willing to change. And so all my efforts in helping were lost. It was such a waste of my life energy."
In this episode, Chelsea shares her journey from perfectionism towards accepting life's mess just as it is. Life's lessons taught her to let go of opinions through culture shock, to name her repressed feelings with the support of beloved community, and to focus on saving the only one she could: herself.
"Anger? What's that?"- Type 9 with Curtis Wilson
"There was one in me that felt that it wasn't really worth the energy. Like, if I had a choice, why would I get angry?....When I do actually express anger I feel a lightness afterwards that I wasn't previously aware I could feel."
Curtis takes us on a journey through his experience with "The Work" (Gurdjieff's esoteric teachings- he's the guy who brought the Enneagram to the modern world!), his evolving relationship with anger and time, re-membering himself through radical embodiment, and questions about the Enneagram and childhood.
The Godzilla Suit - Type 8 with Phil GebbenGreen
"As a kid, I would pretend to be Godzilla. I would literally think of myself as covered in green scales, being this monster who could stomp and blow fire at anything that threatened me. I can do a lot of affecting, but I am not affected. I am armored against the world."
Phil walks us through his journey from self protection to a place of connection through vulnerability, learning to listen to his heart, and finding interior freedom.
The Essence of Type 7 with Joe Davis
Joe brings us on an inspiring journey into radical self care, embodying an abundance mindset, and envisioning and creating a better world while simultaneously holding space for pain. He also shares one of his original poems, entitled "Show Up." Joe is a nationally-touring artist, educator, and speaker who employs poetry, music, theater, and dance to shape culture. For more on Joe's work and to listen to his poetry and music, visit joedavispoetry.com
The Essence of Type 6 with Ben Campbell
Ben Campbell is a certified Enneagram teacher and coach, and he shares beautifully about what it took for him to "grow up" as a Six, how to detach from anxiety, how to tap into his inner Guidance and learn to follow his path. We also nerd-out about the Six-ness of the Lord of the Rings. For more on Ben's work and his upcoming courses and coaching, visit dragonguidance.com
The Essence of Type 5 with Kathleen Grittner
Kathleen is an artist, spiritual seeker, and retreat facilitator. She shares her journey through the depths of her mind, her conflicts with religion, how art and science compliment each other, and how curiosity leads to kindness. She is a wonderful testament of how the mind is an essential (though often neglected) part of spiritual growth.
The Essence of Type 4 with Andrea Sorum
This episode with Andrea Sorum is amazing! Andrea shares her incredible story of moving out of a sense of separateness and into Belonging, her journey with creative expression, and letting go of old victimhood narratives and choosing gratitude and happiness. To listen to Andrea's music, visit andreasorum.us
The Essence of Type 3 with Janet Hagberg
Janet is an artist, writer, spiritual director and baseball enthusiast. In her story, she brings us on a journey that moves through overworking and constant doing and into the possibility of resting in Being. This story of how she found her unique creative expression is a testament to the 3's growth away from external affirmation and image consciousness and into a place of true authenticity that comes from the heart and soul. To see Janet's artwork and other spiritual resources, visit JanetHagberg.com
The Essence of Type 2 with Anne Mureé
Anne is a master Enneagram teacher and coach, and more importantly, she is a beautiful soul who has lived an amazing life. Join us in this conversation on shame, how our personality can literally kill us, and how to find our way home to true Self Love. You are invited to join in with us for the opening centering meditation and lectio divina practice with the poem at the end. For more on Anne's work, visit annemuree.com
The Essence of Type 1 with John Koon
John is a spiritual director who shares about his journey toward connection with his body's intelligence, relationship with his Inner Critic, toxic purity culture, and a journey through grief that leads to direct contact with Goodness and Sacredness. For more on John's work, visit www.underthesweetgum.com
The Essence of Type 9 with C.John Hildebrand
C. John helps us understand the inner workings of the Enneagram 9 personality. He is a hospital chaplain, spiritual director, and activist who approaches life through a stance of ease, connection and Being. Enjoy!
The Essence of Type 8 with Chelsea MacMillan
Chelsea MacMillan guides us into a deeper understanding of the qualities of Strength, Aliveness and Immediacy found in Enneagram Type 8. She is a climate justice hero, activist, and spiritual director who navigates us through the spaces between action and contemplation, fierceness and gentleness, expression and silence. For more on her work, visit chelseamacmillan.com
For more on my Enneagram offerings, including coaching, classes and workshops, visit chelseaforbrook.com