The Enneagram and the Creative Mindstream

A presentation by Catherine Bell and Russ Hudson for the IEA Global Conference 2023.
July 20-23, 2023 in San Francisco, California, USA.

The Enneagram and The Creative Mindstream

What is creativity? The actual process is mysterious but there are things we can say about the result of that process. Creativity is something that keeps us united and it influences everything from education and societal change.   It is our ability to generate and recognize ideas, alternatives, and possibilities in solving problems, communicating our inner landscapes to others, and entertaining ourselves and others. Innovation, the novelty in creativity, can be seen as an idea that has been transformed into practical, tangible reality – something new and beyond cutting edge. 

One element we will explore is the rich relationship between creativity and Presence. Presence is usually discussed in the context of spiritual development but not often in relation to creative endeavors. Yet, every creative moment is a moment in which we come in contact with something beyond what we usually know or recognize. People often become confused about this because we can be led to believe presence is a particular state we are supposed to be in. But presence is what allows us to be aware of whatever state we might be in. Further, the Enneagram work teaches us that authentic presence includes our somatic – kinesthetic, emotional, and our cognitive experience. And when all three are here, we touch something beyond the individual centres. In other words, a real “Be Here Now” also includes awareness of our thoughts, memories, and emotions, as well as what we might call “transcendent states”. There isn’t much in life that trains us to be awake to our more total experience in this way, but we have found that the very practices that tend to deepen this capacity to be with our experience also expands and liberates our creative potential. In this way, our imagination is harnessed in service to that process rather than being something we get lost in.  

Presence creates a field in which our immediate sensory experiences (sight, taste, smell, touch, sound, feeling) can blend with our past wisdom of thoughts, memories, and future possibilities – and when these elements come together, amazing creativity flows. The lack of understanding of this alchemy leads to a “split” between these different parts of us, in which we are not really benefiting from presence or from the wisdom inherent in our past experience. The field of presence IS a field of creativity.  The Enneagram is a key to opening up our field of creativity. Creativity invites us into embodying all types. 

In this session, there will be  investigative questions to unearth the elements of creativity and we will review the different Enneagram points from a practice perspective.   

We will address:

• What does each Enneagram  point teach us about creativity?
• Provide real creative examples of the different points.  
• How can we apply the Enneagram to our creative pursuits?
• Action steps to empower your creativity with all 3 centers.

Our presentation fits under almost all categories and can be applied in business, innovation, societal change, personal development, and spiritual applications.