Asheville is an arty, wonderfully weird community nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains. The mornings are cold and frosty, but once the sun rises above the mountains things warm up and the pines breathe their intoxicating scent into the air. There are lots of neat restaurants that specialize in local and organic food, plenty of accessible art, and terrific, independent bookstores. What’s not to love? Especially for an Enneagram Type 7 like me (nicknamed “The Epicure,” Type 7 is interested in everything to the point of distractibility).
I’ve been meeting with Sandra Smith, a consultant in the Enneagram (a conceptual system for understanding personality). The Enneagram doesn’t claim to describe The Truth about a person, it just offers a model for understanding one’s cognitive/emotional structure and the way it functions. Some traits are hard wired, and others are adaptations we developed in childhood that may be maladaptive in adult life. Understanding and awareness can lead one to a sense of being truly at home in one’s inner world, and can offer a way to continue to progress in a human journey of ongoing personal growth and transformation.
One of the features of my type structure is living in the future, reaching out for all the bright possibilities there. A positive consequence is that I can see a clear vision of a preferred future, and I can see the path that connects there to here. A hindrance is that I don’t always appreciate the here! Sandra says: Practice the muscle of Presence.
Today I’m strengthening that muscle by regularly reminding myself to be here, in the now. As I soak in the sunshine and wonders of Asheville, I’m practicing groundedness.
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