Enneagram Type 4 – What Can We Learn?

 

The Enneagram is a complex system that can guide our efforts to change the particular and repetitive aspects of how we think, feel, and act (patterns) that limit us and get in the way of achieving the results we want. While we all can identify with all of the types in one way or another, we tend to fixate or see and act in the world from one specific type.

This is a very basic guide to Enneagram Type 4. Type 4 represents that part in all of us that feels dissatisfied with who we are. Regardless of our type, we can discover the wisdom of the journey from envy to equanimity that Enneagram Type 4 faces every day and teaches us about.

Center of Intelligence: Heart

Focus of Attention: Fours focus on what is missing. Feelings. Connection —or disconnection.

Patterns of:

Behavior: Intuitive, intense, and empathic. Put a lot of energy into work they feel passionate about.

Feeling: Tend to over-identify with feelings and frequently get into melancholic moods.

Thinking: Habitually pay attention to what’s missing and long for what’s ideal and unavailable.

Passion —Envy: the focus on what’s perceived as lacking is painful. That what is missing originates in an inner sense of deficiency.

Path to Integration: Equanimity is an evenness of temper. In equanimity, we can stay above the shifting intense emotions that come from the painful sense of deficiency. Equanimity allows us to see the big picture; without disengaging from the moment, we are able to create space between us and our emotions. This space gives us perspective and a balanced view of self and others.