How Do You Do Life? It’s such a Paradox

Going along with how we naturally approach day-to-day living is the easiest and most natural thing in life. We are heavily conditioned to think that how we do life is life itself.

In other words, as we grew up, we naturally “identified with” our particular approach to life and took it to be the real thing—reality. Most people find it quite stunning to realize that their automatic way of living, thinking, behaving and doing is actually a configuration–a strategy– for managing the pain and difficulties experienced in life.  Unwittingly, this strategy often creates more unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

You’ve seen that there are nine Enneagram ‘types.’  The personality structure for each type has a way of organizing life around some core ideas about oneself and life that feels necessary, right and certain.

What you organize your life around is related to where you naturally put your attention.

Here are examples, each reflecting one way that individuals organize their life based upon the nine Enneagram types: 

• Organizing life around “doing things right and being right”
• Organizing life around “relationships” and” being helpful to others”
• Organizing life around  “being the best at” and having others see how well I “excel”
• Organizing life around ‘trying to find my authentic self” and ‘how I am different’ from others
• Organizing life around “ideas and mental models”
• Organizing life around “being secure and being supported”
• Organizing life around “having fun and having freedom”
• Organizing life around “being in control and “experiencing realness”
• Organizing life around “peace and harmony”

Each way of organizing life is part of an internal logic that feels like “this is how life actually works” for individuals dominant in each of the types.

The problem is this.  That this internal logic is faulty because it is defined by the ego.   When you follow the ego’s dictates, this logic takes you in exactly the opposite direction from your soul’s deep yearnings.  It’s an astounding paradox of life.  What makes the most sense to the egoic self ultimately leads to pain.

The challenge is to recognizing the way you orient, what your life unconsciously organizes around….herein lies the great opportunity for awakening.

From the upcoming book by Roxanne Howe-Murphy, Ed.D, Deep Living:  Using the Enneagram to Connect You to Your Transformational Path

“On the transformational journey, one size does not fit all.  There is a path that connects with YOUR inner experience. Find it and you’ll have the KEY you’ve been looking for.”   Please help  users find the KEY to their growth by voting for Roxanne’s next Enneagram book, Deep Living, at the   NextTopAuthor competition at @ http://bit.ly/NextTopAuthor