Hello beautiful humans, and welcome to the Mental Wellness
Wake Up Show, a weekly podcast where growthminded, creative
people come to learn best practices from both spirituality
and psychology that create lasting wellbeing.
I am your host, mental Wellness expert, improvised acting
teacher, therapist, and coach Dawn McMillan.
Let's get to it. What we're going to talk about
today is the Enniogram 7 Wood Wood.
And that brings us to the end of this round of the Enniogram
cycle. So if you are new here, welcome.
Seriously welcome. I'm so glad that you are here.
Stick around, put your feet up. We're glad you're here.
And no, you don't have to have listened to the whole series in
order to get value out of this. But why not?
Why not go back and listen to the whole thing?
It'll help put everything into context.
So the Eniagram is a wisdom system often used as a nine
appointed personality typing system.
And what we are doing here, the reason why we're going through
the Eniagram is not to put ourselves into tiny little boxes
because we, my beloved friends, are way, way too complex to be
confined to a number or any one little thing.
We are so multifaceted. But what the aneogram can do is
to help us understand our tendencies, our friends and
families tendencies, and then, in the quest toward integration,
to borrow everyone's best qualities and become ever
greater, more dynamic, more fulfilled versions of ourselves.
And who doesn't want to be a more fulfilled, more dynamic
version of themselves? And if you find yourself
enjoying these podcasts, like subscribe, leave a 5 star review
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and it's because of organic growth.
It's for someone saying, hey, there's this podcast I like, you
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And then they tell to friends and so on and so on and so on.
So thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing the
podcast. Let's dive in.
So I'm referencing Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson's book
called The Wisdom of the Eniagram.
And then I'm also borrowing from Renee Baron and Elizabeth
Wigelli's The Eniagram Made Easy.
There's a whole bunch of really quality books, but these ones
are super user friendly and I believe the links to these books
in the show notes are probably way back at any gram 8:00.
So that that's another reason for you to go back through the
archives and catch up on this. All right.
So to review, the Anya Gram as we said is a nine pointed wisdom
system that gets divided up in three different organizational
collections in many different ways.
The primary wake is divided into 3 is the body center, the body
center way and that just is a bird's eye view of what kind of
leads that person. So we have the gut or the body
trio that's 8 nines and ones and eights.
Nines and ones are operating and growing in response to their
sense of anger. 2 Threes and fours are the heart center.
These are our deep feelers and with their challenge is how they
are responding to shame. And now fives, sixes and sevens.
These are the head center. Are the head center and their
challenge? Our challenge, because this is
my group, is how we respond to fear anxiety in that family.
With fives and sixes, there's a lot of different ways to respond
to anxiety. And the sevens way to respond to
anxiety is to avoid it. All right, so let's jump in.
We'll start with some of the names for the Type 7.
So the Seven is the enthusiast, the generalist, the multitasker,
the wunderkind, the dilettante, the connoisseur, the Energizer,
the adventurer. So let's take a look at our our
friendly neighborhood sevens. Wonderful qualities.
So sevens are motivated by the need to be happy and plan
enjoyable activities to contribute to the world and to
avoid suffering and pain. Sevens, at their best, are fun,
loving, spontaneous, imaginative, productive,
enthusiastic, quick, confident, charming and curious.
Sevens, at their worst, are narcissistic, impulsive,
unfocused, rebellious, undisciplined, possessive,
manic, self-destructive and restless subtext.
Sevens are a whole lot of fun. Sevens are a whole lot of fun.
If you ever want someone to like, drive to Mexico City with
you on a random Thursday night, A7 will be like yeah, that
sounds like fun. So here's some, here's some more
about the sevens, what I like about being a 7 and this is
going to be from the Baron Wigelli book.
Sevens like being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get
me down, being spontaneous and free spirited, being outspoken
and outrageous. It's part of the fun.
Being generous and trying to make the world a better place.
Having the guts to take risks and try exciting adventures,
Having such varied interests and abilities.
What's hard about being A7? Not having enough time to do all
the things I want, Not completing the things I start.
Not being able to profit from the benefits that come from
specializing. Not making a commitment to a
career. Having a tendency to be
ungrounded, getting lost in plans or fantasies.
Feeling confined when I'm in a one to one relationship.
As I said, like sevens are our adventurers.
They're willing to to do crazy stuff with you or for you or
near you, but the price really can be not having that kind of
grit that say A1 has or an any gram of six has.
And so some of the rewards that come from persistence, that's
something that might be unpleasant or boring but pays
off later, is something that A7 may miss out on.
But let's talk about the basic fear.
So the basic fear of an anagram 7 is of being deprived and
trapped in pain. The basic desire is to be happy,
satisfied, and to find fulfillment, the Super ego
message. And remember, we're going with
our Freudian, our Freudian paradigm that you have an ID,
which are your impulses and drives an ego, which is your
personality, and a super ego, which is like your conscience,
your socialization. So the Super ego message of A7
is you are good or okay if you get what you need, you're good
or okay if you get what you need.
So let's take a look at Healthy 7.
The whole, the whole hierarchy of of healthiness and and and
stress. And one of the ways that I think
about it is if you haven't gone to Google or your search engine
of choice to look up what the anagram look like, go ahead and
please do that. You're back.
Okay. Great.
So if you notice, it's like these lines connecting
everything and rather than thinking of it as points on a
circle with some arrows, I prefer to think of it as a
string, right? So for me, I I prefer to think
of like the anyogram is an instrument and I have these
strings my my main strings of my instrument vibrate 5:00 and 7:00
and 5:00 and 8:00. If you are an anyogram 3, then
your primary instrument would vibrate 3:00 and 9:00 and 3:00
and 6:00 and so forth. I just think it's a a more
holistic way of thinking about it.
So my little sevens, I have a couple of friends who are
anyogram sevens, and we laugh. We laugh so much.
All right, Sevens. All right.
So in any of Gram 7, at a level 9, which is going to be our
unhealthiest version of an any of Gram 7 is going to struggle
with overwhelmed and paralyzed. The realization that they may
have ruined their health, their lives, and their capacity for
enjoyment is too much for unhealthy sevens.
Feeling that they no longer have options or ways out of their
pain, they are panic stricken and feel trapped.
Often their excesses have resulted in severe financial and
physical problems. Even chronic pain and a gram
sevens, unfortunately, are one of the types most susceptible to
addiction. You can kind of predict that if
one of your main drives is to avoid pain, you can see how
someone would be vulnerable to substances or activities that
help to numb or distract from pain.
OK, so moving up Level 8 Manic Depressive Reckless Seven's
become so desperate to escape their anxiety that they fly out
of control, recklessly acting out their pain rather than
feeling it. Hysterical activity alternates
with deep depression. As they become increasingly
unstable and erratic, numb and heedless, they go to extreme
lengths to suppress their pain. Moving up level 7.
At this level, A7 might experience themselves as
insatiable and escaping. Sevens fear that their actions
are bringing them pain and unhappiness, and this may be
true. They panic, trying to avoid
their pain at any cost. They're highly impulsive and
irresponsible and do whatever promises temporary relief from
their anxiety. But they are joyless in their
pursuits, so moving up to average.
So this is like a Midland level of personal development.
So these levels are not necessarily evenly divided.
Like there isn't necessarily of all any of gram sevens or evenly
divided among these. And a single person, depending
on what's going on in their lives, may move amongst these
levels of personal development and emotional growth.
So level 6, self-centered, excessive sevens are afraid that
there will not be enough of whatever they believe they need,
so they become impatient, seeking instant gratification.
They can be very demanding, but are seldom satisfied when their
demands are met. Jaded and wasteful, they are
cavalier about their habits, denying guilt a level 5 aneogram
7 might struggle with. Distracted and scattered.
Seven's worried that worry that they will be bored or frustrated
and that painful feelings will arise.
So they try to keep themselves excited and occupied.
They pump up the energy around them by talking, joking around,
and pursuing new adventures, but they are often distracted and
unfocused. Level 4.
I was going to suggest that when you think of the stereotype of
like a theater kid or like a Robin Williams type person, you
might be thinking about this sort of level 5-7 energy.
I'm not saying that Robin Williams was this, I'm just
saying that that archetype might help you sort of get a sense of
this. It's a person who's always on
right, so moving up Level 4 acquisitive Consuming sevens
begin to fear that they are missing out on other, more
worthwhile experiences. Thus, they become restless and
interested in having more and more options available to them.
They stay busy juggling many different tasks and plans and
trying to keep up with the latest trends.
Now we're moving on to the healthier levels of development.
So a healthy 7 at a Level 3. Realistic, productive.
See. Don't worry sevens, we're
getting into all the the Super powers that you have now.
Sevens reinforce their self-image by fully engaging
with life and by doing things that will ensure that they will
have what they need. They're passionate gusto.
Gusto. Too much Spanish.
Mucho gusto. They're passionate gusto for
life is revealed in great versatility and a prolific
output. They're optimistic and bold, but
also practical and accomplished. Savor that for a second.
So you know, you just have this dynamic person who's just full
of life, full of Guadevi, and they're able to be practical
about it. Huh.
You want that person on your team, probably on your sales
team. All right.
Level 2, anticipating enthusiastic Sevens are focused
on the world of possibilities and are excited by thinking
about all the things they will do. self-image.
I'm happy, spontaneous and outgoing.
When I think about my my friends who are sevens, that's how we
think of them. Happy, spontaneous and outgoing.
And one of the things about sevens is I often think if you
can't get along with A7, there's something wrong with you because
they're just so fun. But I may be biased because some
of my favorite people are sevens too.
All right, Level 1 joyful, satisfied Sevens let go of the
belief that they require specific objects and experiences
to feel fulfilled, so they are able to fully assimilate their
experiences and be nourished by them.
They also paradoxically achieve their basic desire to be
satisfied and content to have their needs fulfilled, and they
become appreciative, ecstatic and deeply grateful.
So the Enniogram 7 has so much to offer.
And remember, sevens are working with the challenge of anxiety or
fear. And so when A7 becomes fully
integrated, you have this person who knows that they can get
their needs, their needs met. They're Oh my dear friends, it's
been a long day. They know they can get their
needs met. And so they're able to use that
superpower, that adventurousness, that
creativity, that joie de vivre, the appetite for the life in a
way that is serving not only themselves but others.
And they just get to wander through life in this, this, this
posture of being deeply grateful and kind of ecstatic.
You know, when you think about people who are highly evolved,
there are those highly evolved people that you just get the
sense of serenity from highly evolved aneogram 7.
You're going to get the sense of from, right.
They're just kind of high on life.
It's fun. So here we are.
We're at the end of our aneogram series.
And So what I would love for us to take from any of Gram sevens
is that Juan de Vivre, that sense of boldness, that sense of
why not that sense of fun and spontaneity If you were not
innately like that and sixes and fives, You know, sevens friends
and the anxiety, anxiety trio here are not like that.
Other types, like if you're a one, for example, you might be
more concerned about getting it right and having fun.
And so part of what we can all learn from Anagram 7 is that
life is this beautiful adventure, and it's really worth
seizing. Carpe diem.
Yes, yes. And you know why you Yes, you
should carpe diem. You should seize the day because
you're amazing. You are wonderful.
You have a special gift that the world needs.
There is absolutely no one exactly like you.
There never has been before and there never will be again.
You are amazing, and you are worthy and deserving of every
good thing that ends. And NIA Graham.
A few people have requested maybe me doing interviews with
different Enneagram types so they can speak for themselves.
Let me know if that's something that you would like to hear.
I'm more than happy to hang out with a bunch of really amazing
people because I I really do. I I know.
Wonderful, fun, dynamic, super powered, lovely people across
the Unirgram so I don't even have to go looking very far.
So let me know if that would be of interest to you and until
next time.