Enneagram and MBTI

Greetings! I know I've been a little MIA lately...but here I am!

School has started, and my schedule is getting busier. In the meantime, however, I have done a little self discovery reading. In particular, I've been reading up on the enneagram personalities. If you don't know anything about the enneagram, I would HIGHLY recommend that you go to this site, which has a lot of good info. I would also recommend looking at your local library for some books to read. A few I would recommend are this one, this one, and this one.

I first heard about the enneagram while I was a counselor for Surfside (the high school camp) at Twin Rocks Friends Camp. Our camp elders (Sarah and Dan) brought some books about enneagrams, and they offered to help the counselors (and later the campers) discover more about themselves by figuring out their enneagram personality. I took them up on the offer, being interested in the whole self-discovery thing...I've been fairly obsessed with MBTI lately, and I felt like this was a natural "next step" of sorts.

When I went to talk with Sarah and Dan, they were talking with another counselor about her enneagram personality. One passing comment in their conversation was something I connected to, and I made a statement prior to learning about the enneagram that "I must be a Helper!" The book Sarah and Dan used (the third book I linked to above) calls type 2 the Helper (so does the second book I linked), while the first book I linked calls type 2 the Giver. After going through the process to determine my enneagram personality, I was indeed a type 2. Surprised? I wasn't!

Learning more about myself has always been kind of fun, and I really enjoyed learning about the enneagram and how it can help me understand myself better. I was not aware (consciously atleast) that I am so others-focused, but I have since realized that I definitely am. I regularly let my feelings and opinions slide for others. Hmm...

The second book linked above discusses the enneagram personalities in conjunction with the MBTI personalities. As of late, I have regularly "tested" as ISFJ on the MBTI spectrum. I have tested as ESFJ in the past, and I feel that I "walk the line" between E and I, sometimes switching intentionally based on my environment (i.e., at camp I exude E as much as possible, and on vacation/breaks from school I tend to be heavily I).

It was suggested to me just last night by a co-worker that my perceived introversion may be due to my work environment. I am constantly "on", as my co-workers and I like to say, during the day...I am talking with other teachers, staff from the school/church, students, parents, etc. By the time I get home, all I want to do is sit and read, watch tv, and go to bed. My co-worker thought I was more of an extroverted person with some introverted tendencies brought on by how often I am required to interact with others. Maybe that explains some of my E/I confusion...E I E I O? No, wait...that's Old MacDonald! HA!

Anyway, as I continued to dig into the second book, I discovered that type 2s (Helpers/Givers) tend to be Extroverted/Feeling. Well, if you switch the I to E, I have both of those!

Oh goodness!

More self-discovery to come!