Meditation And The Enneagram: A Path To Inner Peace and Authentic Living
An increasing number of people are turning to meditation and mindfulness to find relief from stress and connect more deeply with themselves. For many, this inward turn marks the beginning of an awakening journey—a realization that the way they’ve been living no longer works.
This awakening often stirs profound questions: Who am I? What’s missing in my life? How can I live with more peace, meaning, and purpose? These questions point to a deeper spiritual hunger—a form of inner stress I call soul hunger. It’s the longing to align with our true selves and flourish as the fullest expression of who we are.
Why Meditation Alone Isn’t Enough
Meditation is a powerful practice that nurtures physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. It helps regulate the nervous system, cultivate presence, and create inner calm. Yet, as I deepened my meditation practice, I noticed a plateau. While I felt more peaceful, I couldn’t shake the questions: What’s holding me back? Why do I still feel unfulfilled?
This insight came into sharper focus when I encountered the teachings of Ken Wilber, a philosopher who emphasizes the importance of understanding human evolution. He pointed out that meditation can calm the mind but doesn’t necessarily reveal the subconscious patterns and personality structures that drive our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
In other words, meditation helps us be present, but it doesn’t inherently help us see the inner blocks that keep us stuck.
How the Enneagram Complements Meditation
This is where the Enneagram comes in—a dynamic map of personality and consciousness that illuminates our motivations, patterns, and growth edges. By integrating the Enneagram with meditation, we gain both clarity and tools to move through the layers of conditioning that keep us from living as our truest selves.
The Enneagram offers profound insights into why we behave the way we do, the specific fears and desires shaping our actions, and the unique growth path for each of the nine personality types. For example, a heart-centered personality type often struggles with losing themselves in relationships, while a head-centered type may be trapped in overthinking. Tailoring mindfulness practices to these distinct tendencies—such as focusing on solitude for heart types or silence for head types—makes meditation more impactful and personal.
Awakening Through the Enneagram
The Enneagram reveals a crucial truth: we are not our personality. While our personality serves as a survival mechanism early in life, it can later become a prison, creating stress, self-doubt, and limitations. Understanding this duality between our conditioned self and our true self is a cornerstone of awakening.
As Plato wisely advised,
Do thine own work, and know thyself.
This self-knowledge, combined with the transformative power of meditation, allows us to release the straitjacket of our personality and connect with the deeper essence of who we are.
Living an Authentic Life
When meditation and the Enneagram are combined, they provide a powerful framework for flourishing. Meditation cultivates presence and self-regulation, helping us be in the moment. The Enneagram brings self-awareness, illuminating our path forward. Together, they guide us toward inner peace and the freedom to live with vitality, connection, and meaning.
If you feel called to explore this path, I offer a three-session Enneagram Discovery Package designed to help you understand your personality and uncover your unique path to inner peace.
Hi, I’d like to start by saying this was a absolute pleasure to read. I’m in the midst of the awakening process, I am in the worst stage of all – the darkness stage and I am very interested in everything that has to do with the soul and who I am. I am completely into frequencies right now and am hoping to figure things out to where I understand it better. I’m very lost right now and I feel as if time is lost as well. Days go by in a flash and I feel like I’m in a never ending loop of letting life pass me by without really having any interests anymore. What are your thoughts about what I can do on my journey towards enlightenment? Or any other things you can tell me that could be helpful would be much appreciated.
Hi Susan,
I’m so grateful to hear that this article resonated with you. The darkness stage is a difficult place to be and the birthplace of your true self. You asked what you can do, and while every awakening journey is unique, there are common threads – making peace with our past, learning to live fully in the present and growing into who we’re meant to become. From what you’ve written, self-discovery is important to you right now, and there is no better map than the Enneagram to help with that. It enables you to enter the right relationship with your personality and soul. Love, Bev.
Do you have any examples of this in practice that you can share? What have you done to optimize your Enneagram in your meditation practices. This all sounds well and good, but without practical application, these strategies can end up failing alongside the many other strategies communicated out in the ethos.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your great questions! I totally agree that it’s about integrating the wisdom gained from the Enneagram with practical meditation, mindfulness and other personalized practices. I for example, am an Enneagram type 2. Discovering that took me quite some time as it requires that we observe our core motivations, which are not always obvious to us. Do you know your Enneagram number? Once a person knows their Enneagram number there are many resources out there providing guidance for specific practices. With gratitude, Bev.