Daniel Siegel in his book 'Mindsight' talks about the key to mental health as being about integration. The Enneagram too, talks about integration in that each Type integrates towards another Type (hence the lines on the Enneagram diagram). We call it the direction of integration because that other Type has something that our own Type is lacking. The directions of integration are as follows: the One moves towards Seven, the Seven moves towards Five, the Five moves towards Eight, the Eight moves towards Two, the Two moves towards Four and the Four moves towards One. The Three moves towards Six, the Six moves towards Nine and the Nine moves towards Three.
But what does this actually look like?
Well, the conscientious, punishing One learns to take things more lightly at Seven, the scattered, superficial Seven learns to focus and go into more depth at Five, the unconfident, isolated Five gets out of all their mental activity into embodied action at Eight, the tough, thick-skinned Eight gets in touch with their sensitive heart at Two, the overly-concerned, rescuing Two becomes more self-aware at Four and the temperamental, indulgent Four becomes more disciplined and productive at One. The ambitious, self-interested Three works for something outside and beyond themselves at Six, the anxious, over-thinking Six becomes more relaxed and calm at Nine, and the unimportant, self-denying Nine becomes interested in developing themselves and their potential at Three.
Which is another way of explaining why it is important to look not simply at our own Type but at the Type in our direction of integration (and disintegration which we will look at another time). It is not by consciously trying to be the Type in our direction of integration that makes their unfamiliar behaviours magically manifest in us Rather, it is that when we work on ourselves, when we become more present and aware of our motivations, our fears and attitudes and start to explore them, those new behaviours start to come 'online' naturally as it were and we start to display them.. This is why people can sometimes be mistaken for the Type in their direction of integration (or disintegration). In fact, the more work we do on ourselves the less caught up we are in our own personality (our own Type) and the easier it is for us to access all of the Types because they have become more integrated in us.
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