How's That Working For You?

Tune in with Host Art Wimberly for a brief teaching on our recording with David Ridley

The Basic Fear for the enneagram personality style 7 is to be restricted by boredom and the mundaneness of life, or feel trapped in negative emotional states with no options to move.  Believe it or not this impingement of their freedom causes something like terror at deep levels in a type 7 personality, and when not aware at a conscious level they will do or try almost anything to remain up, moving and happy, in order to avoid that emotional state.  When that dynamic is allowed to play out long enough the 7’s natural attraction to ‘more’ of anything can lead to deep addiction - whether to substances, behaviors or both.  

Someone once said that when you are surprised by encountering the same truth in what appear to be two completely unconnected sources you need to pay attention because the Divine is trying to tell you something important.  That dynamic occurred in my life several years ago as I was part of an immersive enneagram training on the Dominant Instincts, how their stack order determines the various enneagram Subtypes and, thus, how our behavior is being unconsciously but dramatically shaped.  As soon as the teacher named the three human instincts - Sexual/Self Preservation/Social - my mind connected to the moment years earlier when I first laid eyes on the opening lines about Step 4 in The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions: “Creation gave us instincts for a purpose…(but) our desires for sex, material and emotional security, and for an important place in society often tyrannize us.”   Here were the same three instincts, almost word-for-word, being offered as a key to becoming self-aware at a level that offered the hope of transformative change, in both of these seemingly disparate and unconnected systems!

That epiphany launched me on a search to see if this was mere coincidence or if the enneagram and 12 Steps had other touch-points, and to my delight, there were many. That led to discovering some mostly-obscured (and somewhat indirect but tangible) historical influences of enneagram principles on the development of the 12 Steps wisdom principles and practices.  Which launched my next search: who out in the world of recovery and consciousness work had also noticed this, were ahead of me, and might guide me deeper in my own spiritual journey?  The search led to the subject of our podcast interview today: author, poet, spiritual director, attorney and one of my mentors, Don Carroll. Join me on How’s That Working for You for Part 1 of a beautifully wise and strong conversation with one of our generations gentle elders.

Someone once said that when you are surprised by encountering the same truth in what appear to be two completely unconnected sources you need to pay attention because the Divine is trying to tell you something important.  That dynamic occurred in my life several years ago as I was part of an immersive enneagram training on the Dominant Instincts, how their stack order determines the various enneagram Subtypes and, thus, how our behavior is being unconsciously but dramatically shaped.  As soon as the teacher named the three human instincts - Sexual/Self Preservation/Social - my mind connected to the moment years earlier when I first laid eyes on the opening lines about Step 4 in The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions: “Creation gave us instincts for a purpose…(but) our desires for sex, material and emotional security, and for an important place in society often tyrannize us.”   Here were the same three instincts, almost word-for-word, being offered as a key to becoming self-aware at a level that offered the hope of transformative change, in both of these seemingly disparate and unconnected systems!

That epiphany launched me on a search to see if this was mere coincidence or if the enneagram and 12 Steps had other touch-points, and to my delight, there were many. That led to discovering some mostly-obscured (and somewhat indirect but tangible) historical influences of enneagram principles on the development of the 12 Steps wisdom principles and practices.  Which launched my next search: who out in the world of recovery and consciousness work had also noticed this, were ahead of me, and might guide me deeper in my own spiritual journey?  The search led to the subject of our podcast interview today: author, poet, spiritual director, attorney and one of my mentors, Don Carroll. Join me on How’s That Working for You for Part 1 of a beautifully wise and strong conversation with one of our generations gentle elders.

Join our podcast host Art Wimberly for a special home-for-the-holidays rendition of How’s That Working For You? as he takes a break from the really serious stuff and has the pleasure of interviewing his son, Blake, in Birmingham from Chicago for Christmas. Blake, who is a member of the alt-rock trio band Wray, also works in the independent music industry, occasionally DJ’s, and is often quite funny.

We explore growing up in blended families, learning to cope with anxiety through music and running, and his angle on the pandemic and systemic issues facing this country through the lens of his adopted big-city home of Chicago.

Listen in and send in your vote: Is Blake an enneagram-type 6 or 9?  All correct answers get put into a drawing for tickets to attend the Cubs home-opener with Blake!

It is often said of enneagram type 9’s that because they are perched “at the top of the world” they can easily see and relate to all other types.  In fact, many who eventually identify as personality style 9 in the enneagram wisdom tradition say it took awhile to settle in as that type because they see so much of all the other types in themself.  And while every type does contain some essence of all types, in a very real sense 9’s are the “every-man” or “every-woman” on the enneagram spectrum of human archetypes.  9’s naturally see all the sides to an issue, love harmony and can be incredibly strong mediators of peace and inclusivity.

Like any substance use disorder, opiate abuse can often start as an attempt to simply get high or find relief from an unwanted physical, relational or emotional state.  For a significant number of people, though, their first experience with an opiate can induce a state that feels like life is now “just as it should be".  Whether the first opiate is a legally prescribed painkiller or a hit of street heroin, the state is so intensely deep and satisfying for some individuals they are already on the road to opiate addiction.  Such an addiction threatens to erode every part of what it means to be human - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.

This reality is part of the story of Edward Taylor, Birmingham native, Auburn University graduate and enneagram type 4 who is now grateful to be in lifetime recovery.  In today’s episode Edward recounts his emotional struggle - despite a great upbringing - to make life work as smoothly as he perceived his peers could, his early dabbling with substances as an escape from those feelings and to fit in, and his eventual slide into an opiate addiction that resulted in a desperate and daily existence focused only on avoiding dopesickness or the dark depression that made suicide look like the only way out.

All that and poor Edward is an Auburn football fan, too!  And their up and down 2021 football season is not good for anyone’s serenity but can be especially challenging for an enneagram-type 4 in recovery and trying to learn to master their internal emotional roller-coaster.  Join us on this edition of Hows That Working For You for a sometimes harrowing and sometimes hilarious conversation on life, addiction, college football and a surprising encounter with Wise Hope.

Some of the most seasoned, well-known and impactful teachers of enneagram wisdom in the world today have shared that they went for a significant period of time in their early enneagram journey thinking they were a different ennea-type than the one they eventually came to fully know as their home space.  From Ginger Lapid-Bogda to Helen Palmer to Russ Hudson to you or someone you know, this dynamic occurs more than we might think.

In some cases it has been because a teacher or authority figure (incorrectly) declared to a person that they were a specific type.  Sometimes  the incorrect type can come from an enneagram “test” result; the ability of tests and profiles as a whole to reveal correct type for a given test-taker is estimated to be perhaps no better than approximately 60%. In other cases mis-typing can result from any number of what are termed “contextual” or "overlay” factors.  Contextual factors might include trying to discover one’s type during a time of heavy stress, deep emotional turmoil or when an individual is immersed in a long-term caregiving role.  Overlay factors might include family of origin influences, cultural norms, gender-based stereotypes, and even ’type-envy’ or ’type-aversion’ overlays where an individual either admires a person of a certain type (or the positive attributes of that type) so much they unconsciously make themselves be that type (admiration), or, they cannot stand an individual of that type (or the type’s negative attributes) so much that refuse to believe they could be that type themselves (aversion).

On this episode of How’s That Working For You we get to hear one story of mis-typing as Cindy Barksdale shares a bit of her journey as a female ennea-type Eight and some of the factors that hid her beautifully powerful Eight-ness from her and those closest to her.  We get to hear real-life examples of how some of those contextual and cultural overlays not only hid her type, but also shaped her persona and caused some suffering along the way.  We also listen in as Cindy shares how learning to become vulnerable (huge for Eights) in the sanctuary of 12 Step groups and sponsorship opened her up for deeper work with the wisdom of the enneagram, deeper relationships, and, deeper blessing flowing to others from her life’s passion.  Plus some possible insight as to why some of you are hooked on Assassin’s Creed!

When the worldwide pandemic-induced shutdown began in 2020 it was quickly described as the “biggest psychological experiment in history.”  And regardless of the specific toll Covid-19 and the shutdowns may have had on you or your loved ones -  from virus death to lingering illness to economic ruin to mental health struggles to rising SUD and overdoes deaths - everyone has experienced trauma at some level. But the pandemic and the shutdowns also seemed to have helped bring about or expose some dynamics in our culture, politics and relationships.

As we enter Black History Month in 2022 we hope you’ll listen in on a timely interview with sociologist/demographer Dr. Nyesha Black.  Dr. Black shares a personal snapshot of her early life in rural Alabama, dealing with family mental health issues, her burgeoning passion for asking questions that would lead to solutions, academic life at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and on to her doctoral research at Penn State University.

We also get to benefit from Dr. Black's candid sharing about her own struggle with mental health challenges brought on by pandemic isolation and the weight of the dark political and cultural struggles leading up to January 6th, 2021.  We share in her excitement at the purchase of a beautiful, historic home in ‘old Birmingham’, but then are sobered by how the history of that same property simply but dramatically exposes the evil of embedded, legal racism.

Evolving Female Leadership, Self-Awareness, the Three Instincts of Humanity, and How to Survive Four Decades with a Seven