You know that feeling you get when after a long day, travel or even a bunch of errands say with rush hour traffic, you come home, sit down and it just feels so good to be home?
Oh, right — there’s truth to the saying, “There’s no place like home.”
I’m having that feeling right now. Not “home” in terms of where I live, but “home” in terms of where my work came from.
If you know me and even a bit of my history or the history of my work, apologies for being redundant.
Where was “Home?”
My work with “Emotional Mastery” has two roots, or origins —
The first was based on my 25-year career as a professional dancer, choreographer and artistic director of my own dance company. My favorite thing to choreograph was dances about people, relationships and emotions (no surprise, right?!).
I learned (at least) two things in the process — how to extrapolate and make the emotions universal so people everywhere could relate, and also — how to have my dancers embody the emotions I wanted them to communicate on stage so their performance was authentic and powerful.
The second origin was the Enneagram personality system.
I learned about the Enneagram when a new friend came to dinner, and he kindly told me why I was the way I was, ie, painfully shy (among other things). It felt like he had cracked my skull open and was walking around inside my head.
As one who barely knew me, I asked how he knew so much about me, and he said that word: the Enneagram, and started talking about numbers.
I was intrigued, and went out and bought a bunch of books to further my understanding. I was gob-smacked reading about my own type and finally understood why I was the way I was and why others were the way they were.
It was so full of insights that I dove head first into a training program . . . where I sat on a chair for 12 hours a day for almost a week, with a 4-inch manual on my lap getting fabulous information poured into my head.
Not to diminish anything about the quality of the program. It was fabulous. I just doubted that I could remember the wealth of knowledge I was getting.
From my background, I knew that it was possible to learn this system kinesthetically, to embody the range of emotion each of the different personality types were known for. I knew kinesthetic learning was a valuable learning modality. I thought it “should” exist, I knew “how” it could exist, and it didn’t.
So I created one, which I called EnneaMotion, using moving to embody the range of emotion described by the Enneagram.
This was my certification presentation for the Riso-Hudson Professional Training Program in 1994. My teachers, Don (Riso) and Russ (Hudson), loved it and invited me to be a founding faculty member of Part II of their professional training program.
People were learning — and remembering — the range of emotion of each of the types, and they all — even Don and Russ — were getting new insights because of experiencing the Enneagram through a different learning channel.
I had become quite well known in the Enneagram world. I was a speaker at every conference since the International Enneagram Association was formed in 1994, was a keynote speaker at one of their conferences and was invited to bring my work to 30 countries.
The evolution began…
Something happened early on this journey that surprised me.
I started to change.
Confidence became a part of me. I had studied enough science, and had done unspeakable things to frogs in my college biology lab to understand the two directions of neural pathways, to know that I had created the neural pathway for confidence.
That’s when the light bulb bursted with light.
This work was not JUST about the Enneagram. It’s a starting point. It’s about learning how to embody whatever emotion you want or need in any moment.
It’s about literally expanding your emotional capacity and flexibility — the essential foundation of increasing emotional intelligence.
Beyond the Enneagram
I see the Enneagram as a great introduction to the language of emotion. When you become fluent in this language, it becomes a doorway to your Emotional Mastery which is what I’ve been calling my work for years.
It’s stretching what is possible after knowing the Enneagram — improving the quality of your communication, relationships, business and your life, living as your best and highest self, no matter what, clarity about and living your soul’s purpose and some have said, “self-actualization.”
I continued to teach, train and coach, and created a quiz, or assessment, based on the Enneagram, and called it The EQ Quiz (ie, The “Emotional Intelligence Quiz”).
I liked that term because my work literally increases one’s Emotional Intelligence.
(Hmmmm, maybe it’s time to bring both worlds together more explicitly and rename it, “The Enneagram and Emotional Intelligence Quiz,” or “The Ennea and EQ Quiz” for short!)
Now, as I look back on the thousands of lives I’ve touched around the world and ask myself, “What did they get out of working with me?”, and “Who were these people?”, the next evolution made itself apparent.
Empowering Conscious Leaders
The answer to the “What” question is that they are empowered — to be all that they are, at home in the world, confident and courageous to know what they want matters and that their dreams matter, to bring up difficult topics with ease, to connect to others with ease, to shift their relationships from good to great, to learn how to receive, to leave the world a better place, to find meaning and joy in their lives and more.
The answer to the “Who” question is the evolution towards working with leaders, entrepreneurs, authors and changemakers. They are the ones who most often hit the edge of their comfort zone each time they’re ready to grow their business, expand their reach or their offerings, ready to make a greater impact. Which means they need a new set of neural pathways!, my area of expertise!
That prompted a series of blogs on “Conscious Leadership,” an invitation to have my program on The Humanity’s Team’s learning platform, and working with senior leaders in global organizations.
The Elixir
On the “hero’s journey,” the hero returns from their journey with the “elixir” which is a force for change, bringing healing and wholeness to society.
It’s been a long journey, and it seems my returning “Home” to the Enneagram isn’t that I’ve been away, but letting you know the power of combining the Enneagram with the “elixir” of my discoveries including Emotional Mastery, Conscious Leadership, empowerment, Somatic Focusing, EnneaMotion, The Holy Ideas, Shadow Work and neuroscience.
What’s Next
I am so excited to tell you about the next iteration of my journey, teaching and speaking on this topic:
The Ripple Effect
Empowering Conscious Leaders with the Enneagram and Beyond
I’d like to leave you with two questions —
What is the ripple effect you want to create?, and
What kind of elixir do you need to make your hopes and dreams come true?
Here’s to you, and to the ripple of your hopes and dreams.
Get your free Emotional Mastery Toolkit, and you’ll get your unique Emotional Mastery Blueprint. It illustrates how you’ve shown up in your past and present, and is a guide to your life purpose and what’s been getting in the way of living it.
= = = >> https://Andrea-Isaacs.com/eqtoolkit
