The Vertical Dimension of the Personality

Do you ever wonder why, in the same day, you can experience totally different levels of happiness and fulfillment? You might be going about your regular routine, feeling fine, and then make a phone call, and find yourself reeling into anger or frustration. Later in the day, after a positive encounter with a friend, you feel upbeat. Why?

I personally know how tempting it is to think that these experiences with the external world cause my level of satisfaction or unhappiness. Most of us have been conditioned to see life in this way. But, truthfully, there’s far more to our state of well-being than that, otherwise, our happiness would always be at the mercy of some outside force!

You may know that the Enneagram illuminates nine profoundly different ways of orienting to oneself, and to the external world, the nine Enneagram personality types.

Within the structure of the personality itself exists the vertical dimension of our lives.* And THAT holds the key to the variation in our level of satisfaction and effectiveness, along with some of the other most important qualities we find in human nature—fluidity and change; resistance and conflict, freedom and compulsion, unhappiness and fulfillment, among our many human experiences.

Imagine experiencing that the behaviors of others do not determine your state of being. I continue to find this internal spine of the personality incredibly fascinating!

On the week-end of Sept. 14-16, at Mercy Retreat Center in Burlingame, California, my dear colleague, Dr. Ronna Phifer-Ritchie, and I will be leading a retreat that takes you into this dimension of life that is pivotal to transformational work.

Read about the retreat, Your Journey of Growth: Working with the Dynamism and Levels of the Enneagram, and find out about the logistics click here.

What a great opportunity to explore the inner dynamics of your psychological and spiritual movement that will guide you to higher levels of health. This work is deeply grounded in presence and the program includes teaching, exercises, music, meditation, along with time to enjoy the beautiful grounds and walk Mercy’s exquisite labyrinth.

* Don Richard Riso, a pioneering Enneagram author and teacher discovered the nine levels of the vertical dimension of the personality