Understanding your personality can improve your relationships

SALT LAKE CITY – Do you know your Enneagram type? You can learn a lot about yourself and even improve your relationships by understanding your personality.

In the latest Let’s Get Moving with Maria podcast episode, Maria Shilaos spoke with Relationship Coach Lisa Sanders to learn about the character traits of the different Enneagram types, as well as the biggest takeaways that can be applied in each type’s life.

 

What is the Enneagram?

The Enneagram has been around for quite some time now, so there is a lot of information out there on this topic.

“It was an oral tradition for many years, and through the oral tradition it became a written tradition,” Sanders said.

Sanders gained interest in this because it helps you understand other people’s personalities as well as your own. And understanding the personality traits of someone you’re in a close relationship with can help you strengthen that bond.

“If you want to understand communication styles or conflict resolution, you look to the Enneagram,” she said.

The importance of understanding your personality

There are 9 types on the Enneagram test: the perfectionist, the helper, the achiever, the individualist, the investigator, the loyalist, the enthusiast, the challenger and the peacemaker.

Certain personality types work really well with others, and it helps to know that. But what about those who commit to a relationship before knowing all of this? Sanders says this is when it’s especially important to be psychologically healthy.

“We’re average levels of psychological health at best. We’re born pure… But what happens is through life’s experience, trauma, or whatever we go through, the ego is bruised… so that we have these defense mechanisms,” she said.

It’s all about understanding ourselves first. Once we have an idea of our personality type, then we can work on understanding the personality type of the people we love.