Blog

February 2022

Imagine this scenario; you walk into a convenience store. You notice about ten or so other people are also there buying snacks and other items. Just then, a robber comes in and fires their weapon once. You are shot in the arm.
Now, be honest with yourself. If you were describing this story to your friends the next day or so, would you describe yourself as lucky or unlucky?
If you thought unlucky you would be with the majority, about 70% of people felt they were unlucky in this scenario.

This story, which I made my own in some ways, I first saw in the book The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. I began talking about it in various training classes and repeatedly returned to it. It is such a great illustration of how we can shift, ever so slightly, toward positivity when we have the awareness and the desire to do so. We have the power and the choice available to us, which is quite extraordinary. Read more

Tiny Ways to New Habits

July 2021

When you are looking to start a new habit or routine, it can feel like a big and often overwhelming change. The fact is the more complex the behavior, the higher the level of motivation it takes to accomplish. We have all been there when facing a tough task, such as organizing the garage; if you do not have the motivation level needed, you simply will not do it.

A difficult behavior takes a lot of motivation and drive. It is natural for your motivation levels to go up and down, and you cannot always rely on your motivation level to be on the same page with what you want to get done, especially forming a new habit. In turn, if the above information is true, so Read more

The Enneagram Prison Project Community

May 2021

I am a volunteer with an amazing organization called The Enneagram Prison Project (EPP) which is a non-profit group that teaches, guides, and inspires transformation through the Enneagram which is offered to all people, including those behind bars. I am currently on the path to becoming a guide with EPP where I will hopefully get to teach the Enneagram to those individuals who are in our prison system. I believe strongly that everyone deserves the opportunity for personal development and should have access to these tools and insights.

The approach that the EPP uses is to start out by saying, "There is nothing wrong with you." It can often be hard to hear this and can take time for it to sink in, and it is absolutely true. Each of us has an Enneagram type and this character structure or personality type became the way in which we survived our childhood. Read more

The Most Calming Song in the World

March 2021

That is according to neuroscientists and a market research firm, Mindlab International, that conducted a study a few years ago. Basically, the study had participants complete puzzles while music played and their brain activity was monitored. The song deemed to be the most relaxing and calming was identified as "Weightless" by Marconi Union.

The band, sound therapists, and researchers designed the song to induce feelings of relaxation and used calming neural tones. The song has a gentle pulsing baseline, soothing rhythms, a light hint of piano and guitar, along with thoughtfully arranged harmonies that come together to create an effective and clinically proven calming effect. Read more

The Enneagram Law of One, Three, and Seven

March 2021

Navigating the symbol of the Enneagram gives us the law of one, three and seven. In order to understand these laws it requires a short history lesson. So, the person responsible for bringing the symbol of the modern day Enneagram is George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. He was a Greek-American born around 1875 and who studied the science of human transformation. Gurdjieff explained that the Enneagram symbol is made up of three parts, the circle, the triangle, and the hexad. When you put these three elements together we get the Enneagram.

The first element is the circle, representing the law of one. The circle refers to a universal connection, unity, wholeness, and a oneness. The law of one asks, can we be one with all? Do you love this person, all people? Read more

Finding Your Need to Begin

February 2021

I posted this on Instagram a little while ago and wanted to expand on this question, more than you can in a short social media post, anyway. It starts with tapping into our own self-awareness. Taking a moment to stop, take a few deep breaths, maybe close our eyes, and go inside. What is it that you need?

This question is not easy for many of us. We can get caught in the flow of things coming at us; all we deal with, the daily grind and the patterns and habits we get into. It is often easier to look externally at what is going on around us and meeting those needs instead of our own. "Oh, I better make dinner." or "I need to call my sister, I know she is having a hard time." or even, "My boss has been giving me the stink eye lately, I better get to work early tomorrow." Read more

Seeing the Good in All of The Enneagram Types

February 2021

With many self-assessments, personality tests, or even feedback we tend to pick up on and concentrate on the negative aspects. When the information is 99% positive and 1% a development area we end up focusing on that 1% piece. It is often the same with the Enneagram. We find the areas of fault with our type and the intentions and behaviors that we don't like.

So, instead, it is refreshing and so much more positive to take the time to focus on what is lovely about each of the types. Each Enneagram type has what we call the Essential Qualities. They are what is right, good, and true about each of us. These qualities are at the core of our Enneagram type and these gifts are what each type can teach us and in return what we can learn from each type. Read more

The Enneagram, Intro to the Three Centers

January 2021

The Enneagram is organized around a system of triads, or groups of three. The foundational triad is the Three Centers of Intelligence. Each of these centers contains three of the nine Enneagram types. While each of us has and uses all three centers, we tend to prefer using one of them more predominately based on our Enneagram type.

Each center of intelligence has a true purpose. The Heart Center’s purpose is to bring about connectedness, helping us to relate to others in healthy, compassionate ways. The purpose of the Head Center is to develop a creative vision, using analysis and synthesis to see the world with clarity. The Body Center’s purpose is to generate action to help us harness the inner power of the energy and effort needed to act upon the vision and connectedness that the other two centers provide. Read more

Wise Decision-Making, Development by Enneagram Type

December 2020

The process of making wise decisions is done by utilizing all three of our centers of intelligence. If we can tap into our head, heart, and body fully, in an integrated way, the decision becomes easier and potentially more successful. The head provides data, analysis, and rational planning. The heart looks at the impact on yourself and others. It examines the feelings and values involved in the decision-making process. The body or gut center helps us to act on the steps toward our decisions.

Each of the Enneagram types goes about making decisions differently. For example, a head type (5,6 or 7) may solely look at the rational and logical side of a decision and leave out the heart side, ignoring the impact on others. When we decide to develop ourselves to make wise decisions from all three of our centers each type may need to focus on a different set of tools and activities. Read below about some of these tools that you can use to develop within your type. Read more

Strategies for Change

November 2020

A client of mine had been working at a company for over five years and somehow at some point found herself unsatisfied with what she was doing every day. She would get up in the morning, get in the shower, get dressed, grab her laptop, and head out the door all basically on autopilot. She would take the same route into work and think about the day’s events, what meetings she had scheduled, who she needed to connect with, and what needed to be accomplished. All of this, without much excitement or engagement. It was not for the lack of trying; she had taken a long weekend or two fairly recently to take a break. She had tried going for a walk during the middle of the day to get refocused. She had even requested a challenging assignment to attempt to get reenergized, but nothing seemed to work. She knew she was no longer happy but was a little scared of the unknown. She needed some strategies for change, she needed to make a transition, and she needed to do it now! Read more

Foster Personal Growth

October 2020

Is there a behavior, habit, or way you currently see yourself that is no longer serving you? Does your career path, relationship, or state of well-being need to shift or change? Then you are in the right place; keep reading for the four ways that you can begin to foster personal growth for yourself.

We come equipped with an inner guidance system that helps us move toward or away from certain experiences as we grow up. You may be the type of child that leaps off the sofa or the type that would never dream of leaping off the sofa. What we are drawn to or against become our habits, patterns, and tendencies which settle in and create a comfort zone. These habits make up the basis of our personality, our identity. Whether it is conscious or unconscious, we learn to set ourselves up to reinforce this identity. We develop neural pathways in our brain that become well grooved, traveled over and over again. When we take the well-worn pathway, we feel competent, accepted, and worthy, so we get better and better at those habits and behaviors. Eventually, this is what starts to limit our effectiveness and often happiness. Then when we want to make a shift, change, or the situation changes it can be difficult to do so. Read more