How this Enneagram Type Seven is coping with 2020
I love to travel. I need to travel. It’s part of my DNA. I crave new experiences like an addict. I have prioritized travel, cultural exchanges, and cool-sounding-outings above most other things in my life. Yoga retreat in Costa Rica? Sign me up! Hiking in the Himalayas? I’m there! Cycle across Iowa? Absolutely!
My five months leading up to the pandemic looked roughly like this: Living and working in London. October business trip to Abu Dhabi. Thanksgiving in upstate New York. December family visits to both Geneva and Boston. New Year’s trek along the coastal path in Kent. January conference in Zurich. February long weekend getaway to Berlin…
Some may question my carbon footprint, or my sanity. However, for those of us who have dedicated our lives and careers to international education, as well as those with wanderlust, this is what we do. We do not get stressed out at airports. We pack lightly. We love our luggage. We cherish the stamps in our passport. We have a well-practiced routine for moving through an airport, boarding the airplane, enduring long flights. We sign up for Global Entry.
We soak up experiences, embrace new people, eat a little too much, figure out public transportation, stumble through other languages, get lost, take a million photos, and constantly feed our souls with newness.
I always considered travel just a hobby, one that I was very fortunate to fit into most of my jobs. But recently, I discovered there might be more to it than that. As part of some career-based soul searching, I have been exploring my Enneagram type. The Enneagram is an ancient system that categorizes people into nine distinct personality types. I am a Type Seven, “The Enthusiast.” According to this system, it’s possible I have unconsciously been using travel (and other cool-sounding-things) to skip through life without too much introspection.
According to the Enneagram Institute’s website, “Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical. Sevens keep themselves excited and occupied.” Sevens crave stimulation. We also value freedom and independence and don’t want to be tied down. A main motivation in our lives is to avoid “missing out on worthwhile experiences.” (FOMO must have been created by Sevens!)
Thus, my life of travel has perhaps been more than just a hobby. It goes deep into the fabric of my being (as do some of my other strong desires: to gather people together, drink pints at pubs, and give suffocating bear hugs to loved ones… all of which are no longer socially acceptable.)
My point is, when the pandemic suddenly deemed all travel dangerous, irresponsible and even prohibited, it did more than wipe out my exciting plans for the year. It also, in some ways, wiped out my raison d’etre. If travel experiences (and gathering and hugging) were the main ways I was being true to my Seven-ness, how could I still be ‘me’ in 2020? How can I still feel free and independent to experience all that this beautiful world has to offer, with all these restrictions and limitations?
This is the question I ponder on the last day of 2020.
Let me pause here for a side note: I fully realize it is a luxury, in these times, to even be able to ponder such things, since my immediate family has been spared from severe illness, death and job loss due to the virus. I am aware that restrictions and lockdowns, which were ‘inconvenient’ for me, were actually devastating for so many. The world has big fish to fry. This is my little fish, at this moment.
In all the Enneagram literature (and there is a lot out there), the spiritual advice for Sevens is to slow down, be mindful, appreciate what you already have, learn to sit comfortably in discomfort, and “be awed by simple wonders.”
Wow! Was 2020 created to stop Sevens in our tracks??!!
Could it be that what is driving Sevens especially crazy this year, is exactly what we need the most for personal growth? If so, can I think of any ways that I have shifted in 2020, from anticipation of future experiences, to appreciation of my current life a bit more? Three things come to mind:
· Maybe a seemingly small thing, like learning to ride my bike on the left side of the streets of London, was a gift? I had previously feared cycling on the other side of the road, but suddenly felt comfortable since the streets were empty. Cycling around London brought me a childlike joy.
· Or perhaps the daily afternoon text, from my ten-year-old niece, asking, “Wydrn?,” followed by a lovely and lengthy video chat, catching up on all the “nothingness,” was actually something?
· Conceivably, the hundreds of long dog walks that I took my sweet pooch on this year, to burn off my anxious energy, was a simple way to stay healthy and active, and gave my head and heart time to rest from the bad cycle of news?
I know, I know, fellow Sevens… these examples don’t sound nearly as exciting as fondue-to-go at a Swiss Christmas market! But they are beautiful in their simplicity, and I am learning…
Everyone speaks so much of gratitude these days, it’s almost a cliché. But I can’t deny I have taken many things for granted. What an absolute privilege to be able to hop around the world. Equally, what a gift to be content sitting still… to cherish all that we have in this moment, instead of always seeking the next thing.
This is not to say that I have stopped looking up flights to far-off destinations. I still do that. I’ll always be a Seven. I’ll always have wanderlust. I’ll always have FOMO. But hopefully, right alongside all those things, I’ll also stop what I’m doing, wherever I am in the world, to reply to my niece’s text, “Wydrn?”
Because “right now” is all that really matters. It’s all we have. Sevens can learn a thing or two from that. I bet we all can.
