Happy New Year! Hope 2022 has started off well for all of you!

So far, we have touched on how the Enneagram can help you appreciate the behaviours of the people around you better. If you have missed it, click here and in the last week of 2021, we also touched on how do different Enneagram Types show that they care, if you want to read more, click here. 

In the first week of 2022, let us learn further how the Enneagram can positively impact your life with today’s point:

Through The Enneagram,

You Recognise The Needs Of Others And You Become Wiser In Managing Them

We all express our needs in different ways and the Enneagram does teach us to recognise how each Enneagram Type express their needs and also gives us better ways to hold space and meet their needs according to their core motivations.

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say you have a male friend who has just gone through a breakup and he is crying his heart out to you as he recounts very deeply and vividly how the breakup is tearing him up from the inside. Now, if you don’t know any better, you would subscribe to the stereotype that men (especially in this part of the world) are supposed to bleed and not weep. Then, you chide your friend for being too emotional and tell him to man up.  

That male friend of yours may be a Type 4, whose need to feel special and whose worldview is based on the authenticity of expressing how one truly feels, is really crying out to you to help him hold space and not judge him for being so emotionally open and vulnerable. So chiding him may cause him to not ever turn to you again in his times of distress and you may never know why there is a sudden distance between you and him in your friendship.  

Through the Enneagram, you will learn that in the above situation, the Type 4 would appreciate you to hold space and validate their feelings by listening and not jumping in to ‘solve’ their problems. Meeting their needs could be as simple as sitting with them and listening as they verbally process how they feel.

Imagine how many conflicts could be avoided when we are able to recognise that each Enneagram Type has different ways of expressing their needs, and in your versatility in catering to those needs according to their worldview and not yours.

Want to know more? How about making it your New Year’s resolution in being a better friend by knowing how to cater to the needs of the people around you better? Come join us for our next course today!

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Know how to communicate your needs by finding yourself through the Enneagram Framework! Contact us to find out when our next course runs are and how to use your SkillsFuture Credits to offset the course fees!