Personality Type 1 - The Enhancer
Personality Type 1 - The Enhancer
The Enneagram Life
Meet Annika Lehes
Guide in the Enneagram
My name is Annika and I run The Enneagram Life, and my purpose is to spread knowledge about the Enneagram, to help people gain greater self-awareness.
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I believe that as we become more aware of our own behavior, we become more humble and loving towards ourselves. And when we understand and love ourselves, we also understand our fellow human beings better, which makes our relationships easier to manage.
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We thereby create more meaningful relationships that are based on understanding, curiosity, and joy. All this contributes to a more loving and understanding world.
"I live my life as a One (1) in the Enneagram. Here I share briefly how it is to be a One. I got a question from my dear friend Sherri at Initiate Life to answer the question How is it to be a One?"
You are welcome to follow me on here on this website, on Instagram and Facebook . And you can also sign up for courses and lectures available on the Enneagram. Here at The Enneagram Life we have operations around Gothenburg (The Swedish Westcoast) and at the Enneagram Association in Sweden there are several different alternatives around Sweden. Online training is also an option of course.
I live my life as an "Enneagram One", and the Enneagram came into my life almost fifteen years ago, and has never left me since. For several years I have been living just outside of San Francisco, California, in the area that can be called the birthplace for an orientation of the various teachings within the Enneagram, the so-called "Narrative Tradition". This teaching was developed by Dr. David Daniels and Helen Palmer, for whom I had the honor of taking a course during the fall of 2019. More information can be found on The Narrative Enneagram.
It has been like a love relationship, myself and the Enneagram. With her euphoric breakthrough episodes but also many doubtful moments when I was close to regretting the path I chose and was thinking of breaking up and ending with the Enneagram. But it doesn't work, if you have started your journey in personal development, then you can not suddenly pretend that you are no longer aware of your own behaviors, habits, and reactions. Looking at oneself with clear eyes requires courage, and the path to a more present, conscious and humble person is not quite simple, especially not in the world we live in today. Life's journey goes both up and down, but with more knowledge about ourselves and more humility towards those around us, I am sure we can create a more loving, meaningful and easier world to live in.
The Enneagram has taught me so much about myself and my relationships with other people. Both in close love relationships, as my husband and my children, but it also extends throughout the span to relationships with, for example, colleagues and people in social contexts. I do not judge others as quickly anymore, but have much more understanding of both my and others' actions and not the least of how I may be perceived by others. I am also a little more aware of what can trigger other people, what can irritate some personality types a little extra, and what fears are hiding deep within us. We all just want to feel loved and appreciated for who we are. And perhaps the most important thing I learned on my own journey is to be kinder to myself. With better self-esteem, we feel better and can thus become better fellow human beings.
In my respect for the complexity and breadth of the Enneagram, I see myself as a student in its teaching. That is why I have chosen to call myself Guide, as a life guide, within the Enneagram.
Join me on Enneagram's journey, I promise you won't regret it,
In 2019, I participated in a workshop with the Enneagram Prison Project (EPP) at San Quentin, California's oldest prison with the highest security rating. The founder of the program, Susan Olesek, is now working with a large team to bring the Enneagram into more establishments in the United States. The project has also grown internationally and is currently located in Belgium, France, UK, Australia with more countries underway.
This is the experience with the Enneagram that has probably meant the most to me. There were incredibly strong feelings to be sitting in a large room without guards, along with over 30 male admitted clients, many of whom had been admitted for over 20 years. Together with three female Enneagram lecturers, I was participating in the Enneagram training. We were all involved and shared our vastly different experiences in life. It becomes very clear that many of us are born into an incredibly privileged life and I felt great gratitude but also incredibly strong compassion for many of the participants after hearing their stories.
What I mainly want to share here is the result of a survey that measured how many clients are relapsed in crime. The normal rate of relapse in crime after three years was as high as 60%, but after a few years of Enneagram studies at the institute, it was possible to measure that among the clients trained in the Enneagram the relapse rate after three years had dropped to an incredible 16%. This clearly shows how important self-insight is and what incredible changes people can make in their lives when there are tools on the Enneagram to work with.
You can read more about this amazing project here: The Enneagram Prison Project .
I met Alex during one of my courses for The Narrative Enneagram in 2019, and so I want to share his story with you here.
Together with Marion Gilbert and Helen Palmer from my course in "Deepening Spiritual Awareness" in August 2019 in Menlo Park, CA USA. One of the courses in the Certification track as a teacher within The Narrative Enneagram.
Here together with the course participants in Enneagram Intensive Part2 in Menlo Park, CA 2019 for The Narrative Enneagram.