THE GUEST HOUSE
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are. PEMA CHODRON
Difficult emotions and the very passions of our type are like compost. Smelly but necessary to bear good fruit. In Enneagram terms, it looks like this:
Ones: Your anger is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for serenity.
Twos: Your pride is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for humility.
Threes: Your vanity is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for honesty and authenticity.
Fours: Your envy is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for equanimity.
Fives: Your avarice is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for non-attachment.
Sixes: Your fear is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for courage.
Sevens: Your gluttony is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for constancy.
Eights: Your lust is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for innocence.
Nines: Your sloth is the compost which fertilizes your deepening capacity for right action.
No need to place your attention on canceling out the resistance. Rather, deeply breathe into the place inside of your body where you feel your vice. Drop the story of “why” you feel this way. Simply relax into the bodily felt sense. You might feel a sense of spaciousness. This is convertible energy.
When done with kindness for yourself, with time, you cultivate an expansiveness in which you see with more clarity. It’s a practice.
We’ve got some news to break: Your personality type will always be your companion. May as well welcome it kind of like an unexpected (and familiar) visitor.