The Wisdom of the Enneagram

by Don Richard Riso

Awareness is vitally important in the work of transformation because the habits of our personality let go most completely when we see them as they are occurring. Analyzing past behavior is helpful, but it is not as powerful as observing ourselves as we are in the present moment. For example, it is certainly worthwhile to understand why we had a terrible argument with our spouse, or were irritable with an associate or a child. But if, while we are having an argument or are being irritable, we suddenly “catch ourselves in the act,” something extraordinary can occur. In that moment of awareness, we may realize that we do not really want to do the questionable behavior that only seconds before we were so invested in. We may also see a deeper truth about our situation—for instance, that the “important point” we were so eager to make was really only an attempt to justify ourselves, or worse, a covert attempt to